Blood and Ashes
by Zynali
Summary: Damon, Elena, and Jeremy are kidnapped by a strange organization that seems to know a lot about vampires. Will they be able to escape? And will Elena and Damon's relationship change in the process?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

_This is my first time using this site, so please forgive any formatting errors. This story is set sometime in or after season 2 (written starting in mid-season 2). The plot is generally independent of the show, but the characters are obviously based on where they are on the show. I hope you enjoy it!_

_This story is rated M mostly out of paranoia, but there is some violence and language. There will also be a bit of smut in later chapters._

_Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with _The Vampire Diaries_, unfortunately._

**Chapter 1**

Elena put down the knife she was using to chop onions and glared at Damon. "Why are you cooking dinner again, anyway?"

He gave her a cocky smile. "My cooking is better than Jenna's?"

Elena sighed, forced to admit that he had a point. "Can't argue with you there." Since she couldn't stop Damon from showing up for family night – and if she were honest with herself, she no longer really wanted to – she might as well benefit from his excellent cooking skills.

The doorbell rang, and Elena frowned. Jenna and Ric weren't due to arrive for a while, and she also wasn't expecting Stefan that early. Stefan was invariably late for family night, although he always had a valid reason. "I wonder who that could be?" She wiped her hands and headed for the front door.

Elena opened the door to see a strange woman and three strange men. The woman was taller than Elena and older, perhaps in her forties. She had dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, and she was wearing a trench coat. "Elena Gilbert?" she asked.

"Yes. Can I help you?"

Without another word, the woman pulled a gun. Elena never knew whether Damon had heard her sudden intake of breath or even the sound of the gun leaving the holster, but he was there in front of her in an instant. Just as quickly, however, the woman fired three times in quick succession, and before Elena could even react, Damon was crumpling to the ground at her feet.

Elena could only stare as Damon struggled to hold onto consciousness, but the woman stepped into the house without an invitation. "Damon Salvatore," she said with a cruel smile. "You've become very predictable, you know?" She pulled something from a pocket and knelt quickly by Damon's prone form. It was a syringe, and she quickly pressed its contents into Damon's shoulder. Elena watched in horror as her friend went limp, collapsing into unconsciousness.

"What's going on down here?" Jeremy's voice intruded from the top of the stairs. He had been in his room, Elena realized suddenly, and he must have heard the shots fired. _Oh God, fired into Damon._

Both Elena and the woman looked up at Jeremy. "You must be Jeremy," the woman said coldly. She pointed her gun at him. "Come downstairs quietly. This gun is loaded with wooden bullets for taking down vampires, but they work just fine on humans, too."

"What are you going to do with him?" Elena asked, gesturing at Damon's body. Her stomach was balled up into a knot of terror at his utter helplessness as he lay there unconscious. She realized how much she had come to count on Damon – even more than Stefan – being there to stand between her and all the dangers that had invaded her life. And now Jeremy was in danger, too, and Damon couldn't help either of them. She knew that she was shaking.

"Oh, I'm going to kill him." The strange woman looked up at Elena and smiled coldly at her horror. "But don't worry. I'm not going to do it on your floor. I've just given him a little vervain since it's a lot easier to kidnap an unconscious vampire. In fact, all three of you will be coming with us now, and quietly."

At her words, one of the men grabbed Elena by the arm as another pulled Jeremy down the stairs. Elena struggled futilely as he brought a cloth up to her mouth, and then the world went black as she faded into unconsciousness.

•••••

Caroline marched determinedly up the walkway to Elena's front door. She fully intended to twist Elena's arm until she agreed to help with decorations for the next school dance. The student council was just not cutting it as planners. She hadn't decided yet whether to also wrangle herself an invitation to dinner. Her mom was working as usual and Bonnie and Tyler were busy, so Caroline was looking at an evening with a frozen dinner unless she decided that she could tolerate Damon's presence as a trade-off for enjoying his cooking.

She knocked loudly on the door. "Elena?" No answer, and she didn't hear anything inside the house except the annoying, repetitive music of a video game that she thought was coming from Jeremy's room. Impatient, Caroline tried the door and found it unlocked.

"Elena, your door's open." Caroline opened the door and froze. There was blood on the floor in front of the door, although it didn't smell like human blood. Wary now, Caroline extended her vampire hearing. Still nothing except the music from upstairs. No heartbeats.

Moving cautiously, Caroline continued into the house. Damon's leather jacket was hanging neatly over the back of a chair, and Elena's phone was sitting on the table. In the kitchen, there were piles of both cut and uncut vegetables on the island, and even a pot cooking on the stove. It was like her friends had disappeared without a trace. Frightened now, Caroline turned off the stove, then whirled around as she heard footsteps coming up the front walkway. She heard the footsteps slow as they approached the door that she had left open.

"Elena? Why is the door open?" Caroline felt a wave of relief wash over her. It was Stefan's voice.

She hurried back into the entryway. "Stefan? I just got here, and . . . there's nobody here and there's blood and I don't know what to do."

Stefan entered the house cautiously. "It's okay, Caroline."

Caroline tried to sound reassuring. "I don't think it's Elena's blood, Stefan. It doesn't smell human to me. Or . . . make me as hungry as usual."

Stefan knelt down by the stain of blood. "No, it's not human blood. It's vampire. Damon's, I think."

"Damon's?" Somehow, Caroline didn't find that reassuring. "Stefan, it's like they just abandoned the kitchen in the middle of cooking dinner. And that annoying video game upstairs has been stuck on the same thing since I got here – I think it got Jeremy, too." Something bad had definitely happened to her friends. Caroline was sure of it. She looked around the entryway again, seeing no damage to any of the furniture, nothing out of place. Whatever had taken her friends had either been strong enough to take Damon out without much of a fight or smart enough to get the jump on him completely. She tried to take deep breaths to calm herself down.

"We'll find them, Caroline." Stefan stood up to continue his own investigation of the house. "Jenna and Alaric will be here soon. Can you compel her? Tell her. . . ." He hesitated, unable to think of a good cover story. "Tell her family night was canceled. She's cooking for Alaric. We can fill him in on what little we know. Elena and Jeremy will be okay." His voice trailed off uncertainly, and Caroline knew he was just as worried as she was.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **_There's a cliffhanger at the end of this chapter, so you've been warned. Since this is a short one, I might post chapter 3 tonight too. I appreciate all reviews and all readers!  
_

**Disclaimer: **Just playing with the characters, I do not own _The Vampire Diaries_.**  
**

**Chapter 2**

"Elena? Elena, wake up!" Elena opened her eyes to Jeremy's worried face.

"Jer?" She felt groggy and confused. "Where are we? What happened?"

"I don't know. We're in some sort of cell, in a dungeon or something. I just woke up a few minutes ago myself. Someone left us water." He handed her a water bottle.

It was all coming back to Elena now. She tried to sit up and felt a wave of dizziness. Jeremy wasn't kidding, she thought, as she looked around. They were locked in a cell, complete with steel bars, dirt floor, stone walls, and little else. "Is Damon here?"

"He's over there." Jeremy gestured to another cell, across from theirs. "He's still out."

Finally managing to sit up, Elena could see Damon's lean, muscled figure sprawled unconscious on the floor of his cell. She felt a wave of panic. "Jeremy, we need to get out of here somehow. We need to help Damon."

Jeremy gave her a strange look. "I don't see what we can do right now. Can't Damon bend the bars or something once he wakes up?"

Elena wondered suddenly if vampires could bend steel. She knew they were inhumanly strong, but she couldn't remember ever having seen Damon or Stefan try anything like that. It didn't matter, though, because Damon wouldn't be in any shape to break them out even when he woke up. She grabbed Jeremy's arm. "That woman shot Damon full of wooden bullets and vervain. Even when he wakes up, he's . . . going to be in bad shape, Jer. And I doubt someone who knows about vervain will just leave us alone down here long enough for him to recover." _And he's going to need blood_, she thought to herself. _Could__ Damon even recover without feeding?_

"Elena, there's nothing we can do right now."

As much as she hated to admit it, Elena knew Jeremy was right.

•••••

Damon struggled to open his eyes. Every muscle and tissue in his body burned with pain from what had clearly been a large dose of vervain, and he could feel the sharper pain of wood – damn wooden bullets – lodged in his torso, leaving wounds that refused to heal. He was on his stomach on a dirt floor, and his limbs utterly refused to obey when he tried to push himself up.

"Damon!" It was Elena's voice, and he sought her out with his eyes, his mind still a bit foggy.

"Elena?" He knew his voice sounded weak, and he hated it. He didn't want her to see him like this.

"Damon, are you okay?"

_That_, Damon thought, _was a ridiculous question that deserved an equally ridiculous answer_. "Never been better, Elena," he croaked. He heard her draw in a breath to either laugh or snark back at him and then stop herself. Damon would have smirked had his situation been a little less dire. He tried again to move, this time just to roll over onto his back – he needed to get those wooden bullets out of his body – but his muscles still refused him even the most basic function.

Then he heard a door open, and two new sets of footsteps entered the room. "I see my new pet vampire is finally awake." The voice was that of the woman who had shot him. He heard a key turn in a lock, and then she was opening the door to his cell and looking down at him. Damon silently cursed his helplessness. Two humans stood between him and freedom, and there was nothing he could do.

"Damon Salvatore," the woman went on. "I'm very pleased to have you as my guest." She gave Damon a vicious kick, which he actually wouldn't have minded too much since it served the function of rolling him onto his back – except that she caught him right in one of his still-bleeding bullet wounds. That more than stung, and Damon bit back a cry of pain, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of knowing that she had hurt him.

Looking down at Damon thoughtfully, the woman pulled a stake from her belt. _Was she really going to kill him now? Why go to all the trouble to kidnap him?_ Damon tried to tense his body, willing it to move when he needed it. At least he would only have to move a few inches for the stake to miss his heart, but he feared even that was going to prove impossible.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Elena cried out involuntarily when she saw the woman pull out a stake with Damon lying there clearly still unable to move. "No, please don't kill him!" she begged.

She watched in horror as the woman knelt down, holding the stake above Damon's heart. The strange woman's hand reached out, grabbing Damon's left hand and stretching it out beside his head. She brought the stake down with vicious speed, stabbing it into Damon's hand and essentially staking him to the floor. Elena couldn't stop her cry of horror as she heard Damon cry out in pain. "Oh god, no. Stop, please. You're hurting him!"

Ignoring Elena entirely, the woman grabbed Damon's other hand, driving a stake through it in a similar fashion and then standing up. She looked pleased with her handiwork, Elena thought, a chill running through her body. She heard Damon, his voice a near growl of fury and pain. "I'll kill you," he raged, his blue eyes flashing.

The woman stood up, still ignoring Elena and Jeremy altogether. "Please, Damon," she said, her voice dripping with scorn. "You're never leaving this cell." She gave him another kick and looked down at him for a moment. "Let's see how those bullets wounds are doing."

Elena realized in horror that the front of Damon's dark shirt was soaked through with his blood. Kneeling again, the woman ripped open his shirt, and Elena could see that Damon's wounds were still bleeding. How was her friend even conscious? "Those are not healing so well, now are they?" The woman smiled at Damon. "Now is that because of the vervain or the wood, vampire?"

Damon didn't say anything, and his tormentor stood up. "I think we could use another wound for comparison, don't you agree?" She pulled a gun, and Elena screamed.

The woman fired into Damon's leg, and he couldn't stifle a scream of his own as another wooden bullet ripped into his thigh.

Elena was crying now. Jeremy was trying to hold her, but she pulled away. "Please, what do you want?" she pleaded desperately. She couldn't stand to watch Damon being tortured like this. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that the second person who had come downstairs, a man, was looking at her uneasily. The woman, however, didn't seem concerned in the slightest.

"I don't want much of anything. Just doing a little research into vampires. Know your enemy, and all that. Mr. Salvatore here is my latest test subject."

Elena's brain was working again now. "But you came after us specifically. And why kidnap Jeremy and I if you just wanted a vampire to torture?"

The strange man, who hadn't said a word yet, stepped forward at her words. "Marcella, we need to go. Let's finish up here."

Marcella nodded slowly, and she pulled another item from her belt. A syringe, Elena saw. Vervain. The woman knelt again and stabbed Damon unceremoniously in the arm. "Time to go back to sleep, vampire." Elena watched as Damon's head lolled to the side as he passed out.

The woman stood up and stepped away, turning toward the door. The man took a step forward, however. "The stakes," he reminded her. "We can't leave it anything that could be used as a weapon."

The woman shot him a glare. "You're no fun," she griped, but she pulled the stakes out of Damon's hands before giving his unconscious body a final kick.

She turned and left the cell, carefully locking it behind her. Elena thought the two were going to leave without another word, and she desperately wanted some answers. "Please, why are you doing this? Why are you torturing him?"

The woman looked over at her. "He's a monster, you know. He's killed hundreds of humans over the years. He's just getting what he deserves. Why do you care what happens to him?"

"He's not a monster," Elena shot back. "He's stopped killing people. And . . . he's my friend."

The woman stared at her. "You should choose your friends more carefully." And with that, she turned and left.

Elena could only stare after her, blinking back tears.

•••••

Damon woke up to a now-familiar feeling of pain suffusing every inch of his body. He stifled a groan. God, he hated vervain. And wood, and really everything to do with plants. At least his hands had healed, he thought, forcing his right hand to move. He wondered why that crazy woman had taken the stakes out. That had been her first mistake, or at least, that was his hope.

His arm and hand were only sluggishly responding to his demands, but he dragged his fingers toward one of the bullet holes in his chest. Those wooden bullets had to come out if he had any hope of getting himself – and more importantly Elena – out of this.

Her voice distracted him. "Damon? You're awake? Are you okay?"

_Again with the stupid questions._ He couldn't really afford to be distracted. "You might not want to watch this, Elena," he warned her. His voice still sounded off to his own ears.

"Damon, what are you doing?" Then he heard her gasp as he dug his fingers into his own body, searching for the bullet that he knew was in there. He really wished that his fine motor control wasn't so impaired by the vervain; it seemed to take forever to find the bullet and drag it out of his torso, and the whole process hurt like hell, of course.

Damon dropped the bullet beside him, his hand shaking. He stared at the ceiling, gathering what little strength he had for the next bullet. Then his eyes narrowed as he noticed a flashing red light in the corner of the ceiling. _A camera_, Damon realized. That explained why they had shown up almost immediately when he had woken up before, and it probably meant he had only minutes before they appeared again. Sometimes he hated modern technology, too.

He found the second bullet a bit more quickly, but a thought crossed his mind before he dropped it, and he struggled to slip it into his pocket instead. He could hear footsteps on the stairs, and he tested his body, realizing that there was no way he could sit up yet, let alone get to his feet, let alone fight. He had the beginnings of a plan, though. _Not a good one, but desperate times and all that._

Damon turned his head, watching as the woman unlocked his cell door and entered. The same two people as last time, he noted. He wished his senses were working well enough for him to hear how many more were upstairs.

The woman stood over him, giving him a kick in greeting. "How's that new bullet wound feeling, vampire? I see that your hands have healed. That's really unfortunate."

"Marcella." There was a warning in the man's tone, and Damon wondered about it. Were his captors not all on the same page?

"I know." He heard the annoyance in the woman's voice as she knelt beside him. "I'd love to play with you some more, vampire, but unfortunately, other duties are calling me away." She had another syringe of vervain in her hands, and Damon couldn't help feeling a sense of dread as he tried to brace himself for another wave of pain. _It is really __not__ my day._ Sure enough, the pain came even worse than before as the vervain entered his system, and he felt his body convulse once before he passed out again.

Marcella glared at the man with her. "You are really spoiling my fun here, you know that?" She gave Damon's unconscious form a harder kick, knocking him over onto his side. She ignored Elena's crying as both she and the strange man left Damon's cell and headed back up the stairs.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:**_ What is Damon's plan and how will it turn out? ;) Thanks for all the lovely reviews - they are much appreciated!_

**Disclaimer: **Sadly, I do not own _The Vampire Diaries_ or any of the characters.

**Chapter 4**

"It's been too long, hasn't it, Jeremy?" Elena was getting worried. Damon hadn't moved or woken up in what seemed like a very long time. He just lay there, in the same awkward position that Marcella had left him in. Elena didn't have a very good sense of time in the dark dungeon, but she was sure that Damon had been unconscious for too long. "He wasn't out this long last time, was he?"

"I'm not sure, Elena." Jeremy looked as miserable and helpless as she felt. "I don't think so."

Elena stared at the tray of food that their captors had left them some time ago, while Damon had been unconscious. Jeremy had eaten a little of it. She had ignored it, too scared and heartsick to eat. Why hadn't Stefan or Bonnie or anyone come for them? Why hadn't Damon woken up again? She hated her helplessness. There had to be something she could do, some way out of this cage. Otherwise she was terrified that she would actually have to watch Damon die.

The voice was a rough whisper, edged with pain and exhaustion. "Elena?"

"Damon?" Elena stood up and went over to the bars. There was something in Damon's voice. Something was wrong. Well, more wrong than this fucked up situation already was. He still lay in the same position, and it looked like he was struggling just to open his eyes. Elena felt her heart sink.

"I'm sorry, Elena." The same low, rough whisper, like not even his voice worked. "I'm not strong enough."

"Damon, no. You're fine. We're going to get out of here."

"My body . . . it's shutting down. I'm sorry." Her heart broke at the pain in his voice, and she felt a new wave of fear as she saw that his eyes had slipped closed again.

"No, Damon, no! You're going to fight this, damn it! You are not going to die on me!"

Before she could continue ranting at him, she heard the woman, Marcella, come through the doorway. This time, she was alone.

Elena glared at Marcella, her fury shifting from Damon to the person who really deserved it.

"Not a word, Elena." Marcella had seen Elena's expression, and her voice was like steel. "I've done you a favor. You'll understand that some day." She unlocked the door to Damon's cell and walked in. She nudged his body with her foot. "So you weren't so tough, after all? A bit disappointing really – I had more plans . . ."

Elena froze in shock as Damon surged up off the floor. His speed was nowhere near his usual vampire speed, but it was faster than any human could move. He grabbed Marcella, and in one smooth twist, he snapped her neck. His hand pulled something from around Marcella's waist and tossed it toward the door to the cell Elena and Jeremy were in. It was a set of keys, and Elena watched, her body still frozen, as Jeremy grabbed the keys to try to unlock their cell.

Elena's eyes were drawn back to Damon. She saw him stagger back a step. He caught himself against the back wall of his cell and sank down to a sitting position. His eyes closed as he leaned his head back.

Elena felt a mix of relief and fury fill her. She gave in to the fury. "Were you faking this whole time?" She knew she was glaring at Damon.

He opened his eyes and met hers with a rueful smile. "And the Oscar goes to . . . me. You can be best supporting actress."

"Why, Damon? Do you know how scared I was?"

"I'm sorry, Elena." She knew he was being sincere, and for some reason that infuriated her more. He waved a hand toward a corner of the ceiling of his cell. "Video camera. They were watching us. I needed to buy myself some time to recover from the vervain. That reminds me." Elena watched in confusion as he pulled something small out of his pocket. He tested it in his hand briefly, then threw it toward the camera. Elena jumped as the camera lens shattered. "There, they can't see us anymore. Part two of my _awesome_ plan."

He was just insufferable, Elena thought. "What were you going to do if she came down here with several guards?"

"Kill them." He gave a slight shrug. "Or at least distract them. That's why I tossed you the keys. Any luck with that yet, Jeremy?"

Elena glanced at Jeremy, who was still trying keys in the door to their cell. It was a bit awkward from inside the cell, and Elena turned back to Damon, ready to yell at him to come help. This time she really looked at him, however. He had closed his eyes again, and it was hard to tell in the dim light, but she thought his skin looked ashen. And, Elena thought with sudden awareness, she had a sneaking suspicion that he had sat down because his knees had given out on him.

She watched as he moved his hand toward his leg, digging out the bullet that was still embedded in his thigh and tossing it to the side.

"Are you okay, Damon?"

"Doing great, Elena. Thanks for asking."

God, couldn't he be serious for once? "Why didn't you feed on that woman? You must need blood, right?"

Damon opened his eyes, and Elena felt her knees go a little weak as he met her gaze. He was covered in blood and dirt, too weak to stand, and somehow he still made her heart skip a beat. _I'm with Stefan_, Elena reminded herself. _I love Stefan._ Damon shrugged, a very slight movement. "She seems like the type to drink vervain. I couldn't risk it. Figured you'd leave me here rather than carry me out."

"Damon . . . " Elena wasn't sure what she had been about to say, but she was saved by a click in the lock on their cell.

"Got it!" Jeremy said triumphantly.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of the characters; I just like playing with them.

**Chapter 5**

Elena watched as Damon levered himself to his feet, supporting himself with a hand on the wall. He half-staggered to Marcella's body, kneeling and pulling a gun out of a holster at her waistband. "Do either of you know how to shoot?" he asked, looking from her to Jeremy.

"I've been hunting a couple of times," Jeremy answered. "It's been a while."

Damon handed him the gun. "Just don't shoot me, okay?"

Elena maneuvered around Jeremy to Damon's side, wanting to help him up. "Here, lean on me," she said hesitantly.

"I'm fine, Elena." But Damon did take her hand, his eyes meeting hers. Elena felt like, if she wasn't careful, she could drown in the storm of emotions in those stunning blue eyes.

"You're lying again," Elena said teasingly, trying to keep her voice light.

Suddenly Damon's eyes unfocused slightly, and he cocked his head to one side. "We're out of time. They're coming," he said.

Quicker than Elena would have thought possible, Damon was on his feet, his hand still resting in hers. "Stay here," he ordered, his eyes flicking between her and Jeremy. "I've got this."

"Damon, you can hardly walk," Elena objected, her eyes flashing.

"I can walk." He looked at her, his expression almost cold. The contrast between that look and the one in his eyes just moments before caused Elena to flinch away, dropping his hand. _Damn Damon and his mercurial moods_. His voice was cold, too. "It's only two, and it's a narrow stairway. You'd just be in the way."

Just as suddenly, his tone changed again. He looked at Jeremy. "Take care of her," he said softly. And he was gone out the door.

"Jeremy, we can't just let him go. I don't care what he says – he's in no shape to fight anyone."

"Wait, Elena." Jeremy held her back with one arm, although Elena could see the uncertainty in his eyes.

The sounds coming through the closed door were muffled. Elena heard a thud, then a gun shot rang out. Elena gasped, only Jeremy's arm keeping her from barreling through the door. There was another loud thud, and then everything was silent.

"Jeremy, let me by," Elena ordered, desperate.

Jeremy opened the door, still trying to keep her behind him. Elena saw the two bodies first. One lay face down on the stairs; she thought his neck was broken. The back of the skull of the other consisted of nothing but blood, and she could see the smear of blood where Damon had smashed him into the wall with beyond-human strength.

Damon was on his hands and knees next to the second man. Elena rushed to his side, trying to ignore the two bodies – trying not to think about what they meant. She put her hand on his shoulder. "Damon?"

Damon sank into a sitting position. As Elena saw his face, she realized just how much pain he was in. His eyes were dark with it. "You got shot again, didn't you?" she whispered, fighting back her fear.

She didn't think he was going to answer, but after a moment, he gave her a semblance of a smile. "If – when – we get out of this, I promise to practice dodging bullets, okay?"

Elena was shaken, as much by the fact that Damon had admitted that they might not get out as by the weakness in his voice and the shakiness of his attempt at a smile. Since when did Damon Salvatore let the cocky confidence slip? Then Elena caught herself. How about when he had been tortured, shot how many times, and pumped full of vervain? Damon had done the impossible, she thought, in getting them out of that dungeon. Just like Jeremy had predicted, he had bent back the bars – metaphorically speaking, of course – and now, _she_ was going to get _him_ the rest of the way out of this predicament.

Damon had pulled the latest bullet out of his body, but Elena could see that his hand was shaking badly. "Come on. Get up," she said gently. She put her arm around his waist, half-dragging Damon to his feet. He was leaning on her more heavily than she would have hoped.

"Do you really think you can carry me, Elena?" Damon sounded almost amused.

"If I have to," Elena replied grimly. She was trying to ignore the feeling of Damon's body pressed up against her own, aware that any such thoughts were entirely inappropriate to the situation that they were in for so many reasons. _I already have a boyfriend_, she reminded herself again.

She and Damon followed Jeremy up the stairs. It was slow going, with Damon unsteady on his feet and Elena trying to bear as much of his weight as possible. Finally, they reached the top of the stairs, and Jeremy opened a door that led to the outside.

"Wait," Damon whispered as soon as they got outside. "Something's wrong."

Elena and Jeremy stopped. "What is it, Damon?" Elena kept her voice as low as possible.

"Blood," Damon answered. "Quite a bit of it. Something's happened up here."

They moved forward slowly around the corner of the building.

"Whoa." Jeremy stopped, and Elena and Damon moved out around him. There were several bodies on the ground, none of them moving. Elena thought that the neck of the man lying closest to them had been snapped. She saw dark stains that were probably blood on one of the other bodies before she looked away.

"This explains why we didn't have more guards to deal with," Damon remarked quietly.

Elena looked at him, shocked at how calm he sounded. "Damon!" she exclaimed, but as she looked up she saw that his attention was elsewhere, his eyes sharp now as they scanned the area around the building.

"Hey, do you guys have any idea where we are?" Jeremy was also looking around.

Elena realized that she didn't recognize the building or the woods nearby. "No," she said softly.

Jeremy looked worriedly at her and Damon. "How are we going to get out of here? We're in the middle of nowhere."

Damon sounded annoyed, and his attention was still focused everywhere but on her and Jeremy. "I believe there's a car key on that key chain I stole for you. All we have to do is find the parking lot, and we'll drive. . . "

He stopped in mid-sentence as another vampire sped into the clearing and stopped in front of them.

Elena felt a flash of fear that was quickly replaced by hope. "Stefan!" she exclaimed. He had come for her after all. Then she saw the look in his eyes. There was something wrong, something crazed in his eyes. She had seen that look before, when he was drinking human blood. "Stefan?"

"Elena?" Stefan's attention was focused entirely on her and Damon. "Are you okay? What has he done to you?" Stefan took a step toward her, and Elena would have backed away if she hadn't been half-supporting Damon. She could feel that Damon had tensed slightly as well.

Before either of them could say anything, Stefan's face suddenly changed, vamping out, and he raised his arms. He fired two stakes from holsters on his wrists, and to her horror, Elena felt the impact as both stakes struck Damon in the stomach. He collapsed instantly, and Elena fell awkwardly with him as his weight pulled her down.

"Damon?" Elena untangled herself from him as quickly as she could, fear rushing through her at the way he failed to respond to her movements. She turned her head, glaring at Stefan. "Stefan, what have you done? What were you thinking?"

Stefan was staring at them, stricken, his face still the face of a monster. Then, without a word, he was gone.

Elena knew she couldn't worry about him now. "Damon? Damon, are you okay?" He was definitely not okay, she saw as she eased him onto his back. She stared at the two stakes protruding from his stomach. Damon's eyes were open a fraction, and his pale blue eyes met hers briefly. Then, as Elena watched, his eyes lost focus and the spark of life in them seemed to extinguish before they closed slowly. "No, Damon, no." Elena felt sobs rising in her chest. He wasn't faking this time. She knew it. He was going to die, right here. "Damn it, Damon. Look at me."

Jeremy had crouched down beside her. "Elena, what do we do? We have to help him."

"I don't know, Jeremy," Elena sobbed. But Jeremy's words snapped Elena's mind into gear. "Wait," she said. "We have to get the stakes out."

She and Jeremy each grabbed one of the stakes and pulled until they came loose from Damon's body. Blood gushed out of the wounds once the stakes were out, however, and Elena waited in vain for it to stop. Damon wasn't healing. She remembered his words in the cell – "my body is shutting down" – and she realized that his body had taken more damage in that day than it could heal without blood. And the vervain was probably still in his system as well.

Damon lay unmoving, eyes closed, the blood that sustained him still running from the new wounds that had joined the partially healed bullet wounds on his torso, and Elena suddenly realized what she had to do. "He needs blood, Jeremy," she said softly, resolve filling her. She could help Damon. She could do for him what she had done before for Stefan.

Elena looked around frantically for something to use to cut herself, and she grabbed the stake that she pulled from Damon's body. She shifted the sharp end, still coated in Damon's blood, toward her wrist.

"Elena, are you sure?" Jeremy looked at her, doubt in his eyes as he realized what she planned to do.

"It's the only way, Jeremy." Stealing herself, Elena jabbed the sharp point of the wood into her wrist as hard as she could. She couldn't help but cry out at the pain as the blood welled up. She held her wrist to Damon's mouth, willing him to drink even as she searched his face. She was afraid that his skin was already turning gray with death. "Come on, Damon," she whispered.

At first nothing happened. Then vampire survival instinct took over, and Elena felt his fangs dig into her wrist as his hand clamped around her arm with an unbreakable grip. She could feel the flow of blood increase as he sucked it from her, and she felt waves of faintness as he took more and more of her warm blood. She was reminded that she hadn't eaten anything in quite some time. "Damon," she murmured sleepily as she collapsed onto his chest.

Vaguely, she could feel Jeremy shaking them both, trying to dislodge Damon's fangs and hand as Elena felt consciousness leaving her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Damon snapped awake. Someone was shaking him, screaming his name, screaming for him to stop. He realized that he was drinking from someone, a girl who had collapsed against him. Elena. Oh God, he was killing Elena.

Horrified, he flung her arm away from him, his face shifting back to human. He rolled out from under her, gently gathering her body into his arms. "Elena, what have I done? What did I do to you?" He knew there were tears in his eyes as he stared at the person who had been shaking him – Jeremy, it was Jeremy, he realized as his mind began to clear. "What did I do?"

"Damon, you were dying. She wanted to help you. Is she . . . ?" Jeremy sounded as scared as Damon felt, but the fear in his voice seemed to steady Damon.

He realized that he could hear Elena's heart beating, slow but steady enough. "She's alive, Jeremy. She's going to be okay." Damon clutched Elena to him, closing his eyes in relief. "She's such an idiot, but she's going to be okay."

"Why is she an idiot? She saved your life!"

Damon almost smiled at Jeremy's passionate defense of his sister. He was angry, too, though. "She could have died. She almost did. What if you hadn't been able to wake me? I would have drained her."

"She saved your life," Jeremy repeated doggedly.

Damon's eyes flashed. "My life isn't worth hers, you fool. Don't ever let her try something like that again."

Damon glared at Jeremy, trying to make sure his words had gotten through to the kid. Elena could not keep taking these chances with her life. She was just a human; she was going to get herself killed one of these days. Damon got to his feet, lifting Elena easily in his arms. "Come on. We need to get out of here, get her some food."

First things first, he thought, his mind quickly working through details. They had a car to steal, and they couldn't be too far from Mystic Falls. He wasn't sure how much time had passed in that dungeon, or who – other than Stefan – had missed them, so he would take her to the boarding house until he could figure out the lay of the land. He would deal with Stefan later.

•••••

Damon carried Elena into the boarding house and hesitated. He certainly wasn't taking her to Stefan's room, and the other bedrooms were closed up and musty. And she had saved his life – she deserved better than a couch. So, after a moment's hesitation, Damon headed to his own bedroom, gently depositing Elena on one side of his huge bed.

Jeremy had trailed after him. "What do we do now? Is she going to be okay?"

"She's going to be fine, but she needs to eat. And I don't think we have much in the way of human food in the kitchen." Damon frowned. He hadn't thought of that particular complication.

"I could . . . order a pizza?" Jeremy looked to Damon for guidance.

Damon almost laughed. He had momentarily forgotten that he now lived in an era of home delivery of near-instant food. "That sounds good," he answered. "Order several." He moved over to a desk in his corner and handed Jeremy a few bills off a stack. When Jeremy looked at him strangely, he realized that the cash was a ridiculously large amount for pizza. He couldn't think straight, though, and he just waved at Jeremy. He needed to be alone. "There's a phone – landline – in the library."

"Hey, if you ever need someone to mow the lawn, just give me a call. Jenna doesn't give us much of an allowance."

Damon gave a short laugh, trying to keep the edge of hysteria out of it. "I'll keep that in mind."

Finally alone, except for a sleeping Elena, Damon ran his hands through his hair, pacing his room. He was self-aware enough to know that he wasn't the most stable person, and near-death experiences shook a guy up – even when you had been through the real thing and come out the other side. And damn it, Stefan had gone off the rails again, which meant he had to keep it together. And he didn't know if he could. Since when was he the sane brother, keeping St. Stefan out of trouble? And why the hell had Stefan tried to kill him _this _time?

Damon caught a glimpse of himself in his large, full-length mirror and stopped. He was covered in blood and his shirt was in rags. He focused on that rather than the wild look in his eyes. He would take a shower, get cleaned up.

Standing in his shower, Damon let the warm water wash away the blood and dirt from his body. His mind was still racing, however. He had killed three people today. He didn't know if Elena could forgive him for that, or if she should. He didn't know if he could forgive himself. He hadn't wanted to kill them – well, okay, maybe he had wanted to kill Marcella – but he had been too badly injured. The only way he had had the strength to fight was if he let the monster within him come to the surface, if he became the monster again. But the alternative was what? To die? To stay in that prison? To have Elena or Jeremy kill for him?

No, he had done the only thing he could do. He was a monster, and he killed people.

Damon stood frozen under the water, wishing it could wash away everything that he was. He had half expected Elena to leave him on those stairs with the bodies of the men he had killed. Part of him thought she should have, and part of him was pathetically glad that she hadn't.

He thought maybe he hated that part of himself most of all, the part that was hopelessly in love with her. He was trying to do the right thing, to give her up and leave her to her happiness with Stefan. He knew he should leave Mystic Falls, but the dangers just kept coming and his baby brother wasn't exactly equipped to protect her. So he had stayed, but he was on the verge of losing it and he knew it.

Not for the first time, Damon wished that Rose was still alive. Somehow in the brief time that he had known her, she had understood him, and she hadn't judged him. If only he could talk to her, maybe he could figure this out, find a path that he could live with? But Rose was dead. He had killed her, although he had done so to spare her any further pain as the poison from the wolf's bite ate away at her mind and body. He knew he had done the right thing that day, but it hadn't made it any easier.

Damon tore his thoughts away from Rose as he shut off the water. Elena had saved his life today. It had been a foolish thing for her to do, for so many reasons, but it still meant everything to Damon. She still thought he was worth saving, even after everything. He didn't know if that was enough, but it was something and he fixed his thoughts on that. Somehow he had to hold himself together.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: **This one got kind of long, but I don't really want to cut anything, so here it is. It's also a bit fluffy compared to the previous chapters, but hopefully it is fun fluff. I might actually go a few chapters without having anyone almost die, although that just means the relationships will get explored more ;) Also, I apologize to Stefan fans for my treatment of him in this story. I find the guy very hard to write, for one thing, and I'm totally a Damon girl (that's why I keep putting him in near-death situations, obviously), but hopefully Stefan isn't completely OOC.

**Disclaimer: **I wish I had a Damon, but I don't own _The Vampire Diaries_.

**Chapter 7**

Elena woke up confused and disoriented. She was lying on a _very _comfortable bed in an unfamiliar room. She glimpsed movement and turned her head. She saw Damon come out of a large walk-in closet. It looked like he had just gotten out of the shower. His hair was wet, and he wore only a pair of jeans that rode sinfully low on his hips. Amazingly, Elena thought, his body was as perfect as ever, unmarked by everything that had happened in that dungeon and . . . afterwards. She didn't think she would ever get used to the way vampires healed.

Knowing she was blushing, Elena tore her gaze from the muscles of Damon's abdomen to look up at his face, and the expression in his eyes caused her to draw in her breath. The unguarded emotions that she saw there showed everything that they had been through over the past few days, and she knew Damon was anything but unaffected by what had happened. He looked . . . lost, Elena decided.

Damon had heard her, though, and she saw him shutter those emotions, his familiar defenses coming back up.

"Elena, how are you feeling?" He moved closer to her, sitting on the bed but not too close. _Not close enough_, Elena thought. She suddenly wanted him to take her in his arms and comfort her, and she felt her heart racing at the thought. _No, she was with Stefan. She was not attracted to Damon._ Elena found herself wishing that Damon would put on the shirt that seemed forgotten in his hands. She might be less distracted then.

•••••

Damon kept himself at a safe distance from Elena. He could hear her heart rate accelerate and see her skin flush, but he was used to that. Elena always fought her attraction to him, and he had vowed that he would let her do so.

"Jeremy ordered pizza," he went on, when it became clear that she wasn't going to say anything. "It should be here soon. You need to eat to get your strength back up."

He looked away from her, not sure what to say about the fact that she had saved his life. It didn't seem to be the right time to yell at her for being stupid.

Elena was still staring at him, still hadn't said a word. "Elena?" he asked, starting to worry. Maybe she wasn't okay? "Anybody home?" he teased her gently.

Damon heard the front door slam, and he cursed under his breath. _Not a good time, Stefan_, he thought grimly.

•••••

Elena blinked, knowing she was staring at Damon like an idiot. She could hear the concern in his voice. But when she opened her eyes, he was gone from the bed. She looked around frantically. He was leaning casually against the opposite wall, his shirt now on.

"Hello, Stefan," he said, as the door opened.

Stefan's eyes flicked from her to Damon and back. Elena thought the whole thing should look perfectly innocent, except for them being in Damon's bedroom, of course. After all, Damon was all clean and pretty while she was still filthy. And they were both fully dressed.

Stefan didn't seem mollified, however. "What did you do to her?"

Before Damon could even answer, Stefan had charged him, and Damon had flashed himself easily out of the way. "Really, brother?" he smirked.

"Stop it," Elena cried. She _would not_ watch them fight each other, not now. "Stefan, I'm fine. Damon didn't do anything to me."

"I'm just worried about you, Elena." Stefan's attention was now focused on her, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. Stefan had quite clearly been drinking human blood again, and Stefan on human blood kind of scared her. The way he had attacked Damon earlier – with no provocation and no apparent remorse – really scared her. Stefan was not stable right now.

Damon's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Well, I'll just leave you two alone to catch up . . ."

Elena looked up at him frantically, trying to will him not to leave, to read in her eyes that she didn't want to be alone with this Stefan. His eyes narrowing, Damon gave her an almost imperceptible nod, and she felt a sense of relief. _He understands. He won't leave me._

Just then, the doorbell rang.

Damon reacted swiftly, his demeanor changing from serious to light in an instant. "And that would be dinner. For at least one of us, that is." He approached the bed with a smile and held out his hand to Elena. "Miss Elena, would you care to join me for a pizza party?"

Elena couldn't help but giggle at the ridiculous combination of Southern gentleman and modern twenty-something that Damon had suddenly become. She took Damon's hand, grateful to him for attempting to defuse the tension in the room and for not abandoning her with Stefan.

Elena felt a little unsteady on her feet as she let Damon lead her down the stairs. He kept her hand in his, and she knew that he was ready to catch her at any moment, but she felt weirdly glad that he let her stay on her own two feet. She could almost feel the fury and confusion coming from Stefan as he trailed behind them, which made her even more grateful for Damon's presence. _What the hell is wrong with me_, Elena wondered. _Stefan is the brother I can trust and rely on, not Damon._

Jeremy looked up at them, three large pizza boxes in his hands. "Perfect timing. Pizza's here."

Damon cocked his head. "Jeremy, I always have perfect timing."

They made their way into one of the many sitting rooms of the boarding house. The smell of the pizza reminded Elena of just how ravenous she was. She didn't think she had ever smelled anything so good in her life. As soon as she was seated, she grabbed a slice from the first box that Jeremy had opened. _Pepperoni, his favorite_, she thought with a smile.

Jeremy had also grabbed a slice of pizza, acting almost as hungry as Elena, and Damon took one more slowly. Stefan had followed them into the room, but he just watched as they ate. Tension still radiated from him.

Damon broke the silence. "You know, this is pretty bad pizza. I'm going to need something to wash it down with." He jumped up from the couch where he had been sitting, and a moment later he was back with a glass of alcohol in one hand and a glass of blood in the other.

Jeremy gave him a look. "Seriously, dude? I'm eating."

"To each his own, Jeremy," Damon sighed dramatically. "I don't know how you can inhale that painfully mediocre pizza like that."

Elena stopped eating just long enough to enter the conversation. "Damon, this is the best pizza ever."

"That's just 'cause you're starving, honey. I can make better pizza than that with one hand tied behind my back."

"Really? Because we're going to hold you to that next family night," Elena grinned at him.

"Are you going to be the one to tie me up?" Damon was smirking at her, and Elena realized that she had walked right into that one.

Luckily Jeremy bailed her out. "Do you have some special recipe or something?"

"Jeremy, I have a special crust recipe, a special sauce recipe, and I'll use real cheese and fresh toppings." Damon sounded put-upon, but his eyes were sparkling. "It will blow your mind. You haven't tasted pizza until you've tasted the Salvatore family recipe. We are Italian after all."

Elena sat back, feeling relaxed as the food filled her stomach and the banter continued. Jeremy was telling Damon about the new video game that he had. Ever since Damon had first beaten him, Jeremy had been on a quest to find a game in which Damon's vampire reflexes didn't give him an insurmountable advantage. Every family night he had a new game, but so far Damon had won every time.

Now that Elena thought about it, she realized that Jeremy had really bonded with Damon. It was weird, given that Damon had snapped Jeremy's neck, but the two of them had somehow developed an easy, teasing relationship. Stefan, on the other hand, had never connected with Jeremy, and Elena was suddenly aware of how quiet Stefan had been throughout the pizza party. His very presence brought a sense of tension into the room, and she realized that Damon was keeping the conversation as light as he could to help counter that. She felt another wave of gratitude toward the older Salvatore brother. Then she frowned, watching as Damon downed another glass of bourbon. It was costing him, she thought suddenly. He was drinking even more than usual tonight, and she suddenly wished she could ask him how he was doing. He was the one who had almost died today, after all.

Her reverie was broken as Stefan's phone rang. He glanced at it and then answered it with a guilty look on his face. "Uh, hi, Caroline. . . No, good news. I found them. They're here at the house." Elena didn't need vampire hearing to know that Caroline was yelling at Stefan. In fact, he was holding the phone well away from his ear. She noticed that Damon was grinning at his brother's discomfort. Finally, Caroline seemed to have stopped talking, and Stefan reluctantly brought the phone back to his face. "Okay, see you soon then."

"She's coming over," he announced unnecessarily to the room as he hung up.

"Let me summarize for those who couldn't hear," Damon drawled, still grinning. "Blondie was helping you look for us and you went off on your own. Then you never told her that we got out."

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Stefan glared at his brother, although he still looked a bit guilty. "She'll get over it."

"Stefan!" Elena was couldn't believe how callous he sounded. Poor Caroline.

It was only a few minutes later that they heard Caroline's car pull up. Mystic Falls was a small town after all.

Caroline rushed through the unlocked front door. "Elena! Oh my god, are you okay?" She was hugging Elena before Elena could even stand up off the couch. "I was so worried about you! Are you okay?"

Elena hugged her friend back. "I'm fine, Caroline. Don't worry. I'm fine."

Caroline pulled back and took her first real look at Elena. "You don't look fine. You're a mess. Why are you covered in blood?"

"Uh, it's not mine, Caroline." Elena very much didn't want to explain everything to her friend just then. Maybe later, but not now. Not with Stefan in the room. "Do you want some pizza?" she asked, trying to distract Caroline.

"Sure, what do you have?" Caroline sat down and selected a slice of cheese and mushroom pizza. The food didn't keep her silent for long. "So what happened to you guys? I had to compel Jenna, and she called you in sick for school today."

Jeremy groaned. "Oh, man. I get kidnapped, and I only miss one day of school."

Caroline and Elena both laughed at that, and Caroline continued chattering brightly as she ate. She pointed at Damon. "_You_ missed a Council meeting. My mom wasn't happy."

"And you didn't cover for me? Thanks, Blondie." Damon glared at Caroline.

"How was I supposed to know what kind of excuse to give for a grown-up?" She shrugged as if to say that she wasn't about to do Damon any favors anyway.

Elena was feeling much better now that the pizza was in her system. "Caroline, can you give Jeremy and me a ride home? I want out of these clothes, and it sounds like we'll have to go back to school tomorrow morning." She really did want to get cleaned up, but she also wanted an excuse to leave before she had to really talk to Stefan. She didn't want to think about the implications of that, however. At least not tonight.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: **This is a short one, but at least it's an update. Thank you for all the lovely reviews - they are very much appreciated!

**Chapter 8**

Elena knocked on the door to the boarding house first thing after school the next day. Stefan had been absent, and she was worried about him.

"Good afternoon, Elena." It was Damon who opened the door, as usual, and Elena suddenly felt a bit nervous to see him after everything that had happened yesterday.

"Hi, Damon. Is Stefan home? Is he okay? He wasn't in school."

"Stefan, Stefan, Stefan. It's always Stefan. What about me, Elena?"

Elena glared at him, pushing past him into the house. "How was your day, Damon?"

"It's been rather boring actually. Haven't been shot once. Although I did go back and visit the building we escaped from."

That got Elena's attention. "You did? What did you find?" Then another thought crossed her mind. "Did you go alone? Something could have happened to you, Damon."

"Your concern is touching, Elena." His voice dripped with sarcasm. "I didn't find much. No one was there. Or no one alive – or undead, for that matter. I did get my phone back, though." He took it out of his pocket and held it up. Damon moved to pour himself a drink. "Stefan is upstairs. I think he's doing pull-ups again."

"Pull-ups? Damon, is he going to be okay?"

Damon shrugged. "Eventually he will. You know the drill now."

Elena's voice was small, barely a whisper. "Will you . . . listen while I talk to him?"

Damon nodded, his eyes suddenly serious.

Reluctantly, Elena turned away from Damon and headed up the stairs, her steps hesitant. She pushed open the door to Stefan's room. "Stefan?" She couldn't suppress a smile when she saw that Damon had been exactly right. Stefan was doing pull-ups. Her smile widened a bit. There was something about a guy doing pull-ups. _Very hot_, she thought, suddenly pleased that she was feeling her normal attraction to Stefan.

Too bad his words spoiled that illusion of normality. "You should stay away from me, Elena," he said grimly. "I'm not safe to be around right now."

"Stefan, you can control it. I know you're strong enough. I trust you."

"I'm trying, Elena, but it's not as simple as that." He turned away from her.

"Let me help you. We'll get through this."

Stefan suddenly whipped his head back around to look at her, and Elena couldn't suppress a gasp as the veins around his eyes began to blacken. "You don't know anything about it, Elena," he said. His voice sounded different, and Elena backed away a step.

Just like that, he was on her, shoving her against a wall. "You want to be with a vampire, Elena?" he asked, his face now fully that of a vampire and his voice threatening.

"Stefan, stop. You're scaring me."

"You're heart is racing, Elena. You might want to do something about that." Stefan had pinned her against the wall, and Elena knew that it was fear that had sent her heart pounding against her chest. Stefan ran a finger down her neck, and she knew that he was staring at the pulse there.

Then she heard another voice, cool and calm. Damon. "Think about what you're doing, Stefan," he said. He had entered the room, and Elena stared past Stefan's shoulder, meeting icy blue eyes. "Step away from her," Damon continued.

Stefan turned to glare at Damon, but he still kept Elena pinned in place. "Are you going to make me, brother?"

"If I have to."

Elena spoke again. She didn't want to see the brothers fight. And if Stefan really wanted to hurt her, she wasn't sure even Damon could get there in time. There had to be a way to talk Stefan down. "Please, Stefan," she said pleadingly. "You need help."

"I need help?" Stefan sounded incredulous, but he did move a step away from her, turning to glare at Damon again. "Isn't this what you've always wanted, Damon? Me embracing my vampire nature?"

Damon started to answer, but Stefan cut him off. "Or do you not want me to be a strong as you? You want to be the only one who can protect Elena, so she'll come running to you."

Elena was staring at Stefan in horror. "Stefan, listen to yourself. This isn't you. I need you to be my Stefan, the person I can count on."

Stefan turned back to her, and Elena didn't even see Damon move before Stefan was collapsing, a vervain dart in his back. She glared at Damon. "You didn't have to do that. He was coming around."

Damon shrugged. "I'm not so sure. And he could have hurt you."

"He wouldn't hurt me," Elena said doggedly, although she suddenly realized that she wasn't sure she truly believed it.

Damon looked skeptical, too, but he just sighed. "Whatever you say." He sounded tired, Elena realized. "I'm going to take him down to the basement," Damon went on. "And then I'll go kill Bambi, get some Stefan-diet blood for him."

"Thank you, Damon," Elena said softly, meeting his blue eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: **_It's past time for some one-on-one time with Damon and Elena, don't you think? All readers and all reviews are much appreciated!  
_

**Chapter 9**

Elena trudged up the stairs from the basement of the boarding house. She had stopped by to check in on Stefan's progress with his detox. It was harder this time, both for him and for her. Last time she had had so much faith in him and their relationship, their love – she had been sure that they could get through anything. Now, she was almost sure that they were over, but she knew she couldn't break up with him until he had stabilized himself again. At least he wasn't suicidal this time around.

She paused as she passed the door to the library. Damon was inside, sitting and staring into the fire, his ubiquitous drink in his hand. Elena had been avoiding Damon, afraid of how her feelings for him were changing. She knew it probably wasn't fair to him, and she missed the way they had supported each other the last time Stefan had fallen off the wagon. She knew it was a bad idea, but she walked into the library anyway.

"How is he?" Damon asked quietly, not turning to look at her. "Let me guess – broody?"

Elena sighed and slumped down onto the couch next to Damon, careful not to touch him. She didn't want to talk about Stefan. "Pretty much."

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, watching the flames dance in the fireplace. Then the words slipped out of Elena's mouth before she could stop them. "What are you drinking?"

Damon raised an eyebrow at her. "Bourbon. Why, you want some?"

"Do you have anything I might actually like?" Elena couldn't believe she had not only started this line of conversation but was actually continuing it.

"Drinking on a school night, Elena? Has my little brother driven you to that?"

She glared at him. "You're a bad influence."

"Was that ever in doubt?" Damon looked genuinely surprised that she could ever have considered him anything other than a bad influence, and Elena couldn't help but laugh at his expression. She realized that she couldn't remember the last time she had truly laughed like that. Damon had gotten up, cocking his head at her. "Well, I have wine. Or tequila?"

Elena knew she was going to regret this. "Tequila, it is."

In a moment, Damon had appeared beside her again, sitting down and handing her a shot of tequila. Being Damon, he had brought the whole bottle, which he set on the table in front of her with a flourish. With a grimace, Elena picked up her glass. She glanced at Damon. "Don't judge me, okay?"

"Me?" Damon asked with mock horror. "No judging here." He picked up his own glass and held it up in a toast. "To drowning our sorrows in alcohol."

Elena clinked her glass with his and threw down her first shot.

It didn't take long before Elena had a good buzz going. She had also moved closer to Damon, their shoulders now touching, and she knew it was past time to slow down. A random thought crossed her mind. "Damon, when you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?"

Damon sighed. "Things were different back then, Elena. We didn't get to dream of becoming astronauts." His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

He wasn't nearly drunk enough yet, Elena thought. "What was it like then? What was life like?"

"Nasty, brutish, and short."

"Damon, you're not funny. Talk to me."

Damon glanced at her before turning back to the fire in front of them. "I'm serious, Elena. I fought in the Civil War. I died when my own father shot me for trying to rescue a vampire who, as it turned out, never cared about me anyway. My life was nasty, brutish, and short."

Elena hit him. "You need to drink more."

Damon gave her a soft smile and obediently poured himself another drink. He didn't drink it right away, however. He was staring into the fire, seemingly lost in his own memories. "When I was little, I dreamed about going west," he said slowly. "Making my own name and fortune, getting away from my family, especially my dad." He paused, a sarcastic smirk crossing his face. "It was a stupid dream."

"Damon, don't say that!" Elena turned toward Damon, resting her hand on his arm. She was horrified that he would so bluntly dismiss his own youthful hopes.

Damon shifted on the couch, turning so that they were face to face. Elena felt transfixed by the sparkle in his blue eyes, part firelight and part purely Damon. He grinned at her. "No, it really was a stupid dream, Elena. I tried going west after I became a vampire, and I hated it. It was nothing like the stories. Way too much hard work, and a serious shortage of women."

Elena giggled at that. Her eyes dropped from Damon's eyes to his lips, and she realized that her hand was still resting on his arm. Before she could even think about the consequences, she had closed the distance between them, her lips brushing against his.

She had surprised him, and it took him a moment to react. His lips were soft against hers, hesitant at first but then the fire that Elena had always sensed was there flared between them. Damon's hand came up to cup one side of her face and tangle in her hair, and Elena moaned as their lips parted, tongues dueling. Her whole body was on fire at his every touch, and she had never felt anything like it, had never kissed anyone like him. She didn't want it to ever stop, and she shifted closer to him, needing more physical contact between them.

Elena finally broke the kiss, needing to breathe, and suddenly Damon had disappeared from the couch beside her. "Damon?" He was across the room by the door, a million emotions flickering through eyes that were dark with desire. She knew he had felt that kiss as strongly as she had. She knew he wanted her, so why was he standing over there?

He just stared at her for a long moment. Then he seemed to come to some resolution. "Look, Elena," he began. "You're drunk."

"I'm not that drunk."

Damon ignored her. "Hell, I'm drunk." He ran his hands through his hair. "It's not real, okay?"

They stared at each other for a moment more, as Elena struggled to find the right words, any words. But before she could say anything, he was gone from the room. It took a minute longer for Elena to find her voice, and then she spoke so quietly that even Damon's vampire ears barely heard her. "It _is_ real, Damon," she whispered.

•••••

"_It is real, Damon."_ Elena's whispered words echoed in Damon's mind. He had been all the way to his bedroom by the time she spoke, and he didn't know what he would have done if he had still been in the same room with her.

What was wrong with him? He had had the one thing he wanted most in the world – Elena Gilbert in his arms, kissing him – and he had walked away. Damon wished that he had had the presence of mind to grab a bottle of alcohol when he had left the library because he really, really needed a drink. He sat down on his bed, head in his hands.

The universe was playing a cruel joke on him – on all three of them really – and although Damon was pretty sure that he deserved whatever torments karma could throw at him, he was less certain what Elena and Stefan had done wrong. Elena wasn't Katherine, she didn't want to be Katherine, and yet somehow history was repeating itself anyway.

And Damon had been around a while; he had seen this story before, and he knew how it ended. The bad guy didn't get the girl. _He_ didn't get the girl.

**Author's Note: **_Okay, now that I'm not spoiling my own story: I think that on the show Elena has rejected Damon enough times that he won't make the first move - so here, Elena initiates the kiss._


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **Sorry about the delay in updating and that this is another short one. This one has some of our favorite dysfunctional brotherly relationship in it. I'm not sure that I quite nailed that interaction, but I look at it as both brothers falling into the same patterns of interaction regardless of their intentions. And Damon's issues are front and center in this one as well. Hope you enjoy it, and as always, reviews are appreciated.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters.

**Chapter 10**

Damon opened the door to the basement cell. "Hello, brother." He tossed a bottle of blood to Stefan. "Thumper and his little friends died screaming. Pretty soon the furry creatures of the forest won't be speaking to me either." He leaned casually against the wall of the cell, watching his brother.

"Thanks." Stefan opened the bottle slowly and drank. After a few minutes, he looked at Damon suspiciously. "Why are you still here?"

"Just thought maybe it was time for a little brotherly bonding. I mean, you must be lonely, all locked up in here. Thought some Damon humor might cheer you up." In truth, Damon was trying to come up with a way to warn his brother that he was losing Elena, without revealing that he had made the horrible mistake of kissing her.

"Not likely," Stefan said dryly. Then after a moment, he added, "Well, if you're determined to chat, maybe you can tell me what's going on with Elena."

"Shouldn't you know that? You're her boyfriend." Not at all what Damon had meant to say, but the words were out of his mouth before he thought.

"And you're her 'friend' who will be there for anything she needs, aren't you?"

Damon actually flinched at the scorn in his brother's voice.

Stefan wasn't done. "Just leave her alone, Damon."

Damon wanted to say, _I'm trying to, damn it_. But that wasn't what came out of his mouth. Instead, he said, "Someone has to protect her." _From Klaus, Katherine, even you._

"And that's all you're doing, is it? You expect me to believe that? I know you always have an angle, Damon. You're just going to end up hurting her. We both know that."

Damon was so sick of Stefan always thinking the worst of him. Didn't Stefan know that he would never do anything to hurt Elena? Didn't he see that Damon was trying? He was trying to do the right thing, damn it. Simultaneously hurt and furious, Damon fled the cell, slamming the door behind him and blurring up the stairs to the nearest alcohol. His hand was shaking as he poured himself a drink.

He didn't see the confused look on Stefan's face at his brother's reaction to his words.

•••••

Elena was annoyed. Damon was avoiding _her_ now, and it wasn't easy to track down a vampire who was actively avoiding you. Every time she had gone to the boarding house to check on Stefan the past two days, Damon had managed to be absent. Today she had loudly told everyone she could what time she planned to visit the house, and now at exactly that time, she was headed to the Mystic Grill.

Sure enough, she saw Damon's familiar broad shoulders and leather jacket seated at the bar. She slipped into the seat beside him. "You've been avoiding me."

Damon glanced at her before refocusing on the drink in front of him. "Hello, Elena."

"We need to talk, Damon."

"How's Stefan doing?"

"Better, but I think you know that." She took a deep breath. "Damon, about the other night . . . "

He interrupted her. "You were drunk. It was a mistake. I know that, Elena. You don't have to spell it out."

He could be so dense sometimes. "It wasn't a mistake, Damon. I'm going to break up with Stefan as soon as he's okay." She pressed on, hunting for words. Damon's presence was distracting her from what she had planned to say. "I don't know what will happen . . . with us. But it wasn't a mistake."

Damon's eyes were intense as he looked at her, but she couldn't quite figure out the emotion in them. "You should work things out with Stefan, Elena," he said fiercely. "I'm not . . . I can't . . . " He wasn't doing any better with words than she was. "You should be with Stefan," he concluded lamely.

Elena was pretty sure she wasn't getting through to him. She ventured a hand on his arm. "Stefan and I are over. We have been for a while."

Damon's eyes had a wild look in them now. "Elena, I can't do this." He got up from the bar, pulling away from her hand. "I can't do this again."

_Again? What is he talking about?_ Elena thought. She watched Damon's back as he fled. _That could have gone better._

Caroline walked into the Grill just as Damon left. She had a speculative look on her face as she came up to Elena. "What did you say to Damon? He looked like he'd seen a ghost." She grinned. "You know I could use a way to mess with him."

Elena was silent. She realized that she wasn't ready to tell her friend that she had feelings for Damon Salvatore.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **_This one probably needs more development, but I'm going to post it anyway. It's a bit of a filler chapter (and it probably should be more than that), but it will allow us to move on to some exciting things. Next chapter, more action!_

**Disclaimer:** _I'm just playing with the characters. Sadly, they aren't mine._

**Chapter 11**

Elena sighed. Breaking up with Stefan was starting to feel a lot like breaking up with Matt. She loved him – in a way, she always would – but she knew that their relationship was no longer working. She needed to be free to move on, to follow her heart. She was only eighteen after all, and she felt suffocated by her relationship with Stefan. Elena tried to silence the voice in her head that kept saying that what she really wanted, who she really wanted, was Damon. She wasn't sure where they stood after that weird conversation at the Grill a few days ago. He had gone back to avoiding her, and she hadn't seen him since. She missed him.

She knocked on Stefan's door softly. He had been out of the basement and back at school the past few days, so she hoped that he had things under control again. Having him back in her life on a daily basis had only made their fading relationship more awkward in some ways, however, which was why she knew she couldn't wait any longer to tell him that they were over. She just prayed that he would be stable enough to handle it. The last thing that she wanted to do was to send Stefan into another tailspin.

"Stefan? You in there?"

"Come on in, Elena."

Elena entered the room slowly, her steps hesitant. If this conversation went as she planned, there would be no going back. Stefan was lying back on his bed, apparently staring at the ceiling. He sat up as Elena entered. "Stefan, we need to talk."

"I know, Elena." Stefan's eyes were intense as he met hers. "I owe you an explanation."

"Stefan, that's not . . . "

"No, really Elena. Let me explain. I . . . I was so scared when you disappeared. I was terrified that you were in danger again, and I knew that whoever had taken you had been strong enough to take Damon down. I didn't see how I could protect you without drinking human blood."

Elena sighed. "Stefan, physical strength isn't everything. I don't care how strong you are. And don't you think it's more important that you're thinking clearly?"

Stefan bowed his head, looking guilty. "I know, Elena. I feel sick that I could have hurt you. I'm sorry."

Elena didn't think that Stefan was really seeing the big picture. "It's not me that you should be apologizing to." Stefan just looked at her blankly. "You need to apologize to Damon. He's the one you almost killed."

Stefan met her eyes, and Elena thought that the best word to describe his expression was patronizing. "Elena, my relationship with Damon, it's . . . complicated."

"You think I don't know that? I _have_ been paying attention, Stefan." Elena was getting angry now. This attitude of his was part of why things were no longer working between them. "_You_ weren't there that day. You didn't see what we went through, what Damon went through."

"I know, Elena, but I know my brother. I'm sorry if I jumped to conclusions, but Damon can't really be trusted."

"That's not true, Stefan," Elena said hotly. _How can he say that after everything that has happened?_ She could see that Damon wasn't the same vampire that he had been when he first came to Mystic Falls, so why couldn't Stefan see that? Elena could remember a time when Stefan had wanted nothing more than to find the humanity in his brother. Now he didn't seem to care that Damon had reawakened that humanity, that he had changed.

Stefan gave her a strange look. "Did you come here to talk about Damon?"

"No," Elena said slowly, reluctant to return to the topic that had brought her there. "I came to talk about us."

Stefan just looked at her, not saying anything, so Elena plowed on. "Stefan, I love you, but our relationship hasn't been working, not for a while now."

Now Stefan looked devastated. "Elena, don't do this. You and me – we're forever. I'm sure of it."

Elena knew there were tears in her eyes. "I thought so, too, Stefan. But things have changed. I guess I've changed. I'm sorry."

"Are you breaking up with me?"

Elena could only nod. She forced herself to meet his eyes, to see the pain there. "I'm sorry," she said again. Then she turned and left the room. She was afraid that there was more that had to be said between them, but she wasn't ready to say it, not with him looking at her like that.

•••••

Damon hadn't been trying to eavesdrop, but he couldn't help overhearing when Elena and Stefan had started fighting. Then when he heard his own name come up, he couldn't stop himself from listening. Had Elena really just broken up with Stefan? Damon felt a surge of hope in his cold, dead heart. Maybe Elena had meant what she had said to him in the Grill the other day. He shook his head, though, tamping down that feeling of hope. This wasn't the first time that Elena and Stefan had broken up. None of the others had stuck, and this one wouldn't either.

And even if it did, there was no way Elena would turn to him, Damon reminded himself brutally. He wasn't right for her. She deserved someone who was good and kind, and he was neither of those things. He was a monster, a killer, and there was no changing or denying that. He would just drag her into the dark with him – in fact, he was afraid that he was already doing so. He needed to stay away from Elena.

Damon poured himself a drink. Unfortunately, thoughts of his relationship with Stefan didn't help much to distract him from thinking about Elena. Damon knew that he had been trying to change, but he also knew that he was still making plenty of mistakes. And Stefan knew him well, if his brother still didn't trust him, well that was fair because Damon knew he didn't really deserve anyone's trust. He was still a vampire, first and foremost, and he knew better than anyone what that meant.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **_This is a longer one (finally!), and as promised, lots of action._

**Disclaimer: **_Just borrowing the characters.__  
_

**Chapter 12**

Elena left the bathroom of the Mystic Grill with a smile on her face. Girls' night with Bonnie and Caroline was going quite well, actually taking her mind off the end of her relationship with Stefan. It was fun to just relax and hang out with her girlfriends for a night. She almost felt like a normal teenager. She was on her way back to their table when she felt a hand grab her arm.

A strange man was looking down at her. "Katherine?"

Elena felt a chill pass through her body, and she knew her heart rate had accelerated. She tried to keep her voice calm and unaffected. "I'm sorry. You've mistaken me for someone else." She had a flashback to another, nearly identical incident many months ago when one of the tomb vampires had thought she was Katherine. Would she ever be free of that woman's influence?

The man glared at her, still holding her arm. "Have I now?"

Elena jerked her arm free, a bit surprised that he let her, and made her voice as steely as possible. "Yes, you have." Without another word, she hurried back to Bonnie and Caroline.

Her friends were looking at her worriedly, and she wondered if Caroline had heard her conversation over the noise of the crowd at the Grill. Elena held up a hand to stop their questions as she pulled out her phone. Her friends would provide a decent buffer, but there was another person she needed to contact. She knew he would come, even if they hadn't spoken so much as a word to each other the past few days. She quickly typed a text to Damon: _Someone just called me Katherine. At the Grill. _She showed it quickly around the table to update her friends before hitting send.

Her phone buzzed with Damon's response a second later: _On my way._

It took only a few minutes before Damon was approaching their table, his eyes scanning the restaurant. Elena could tell from his posture that he was on high alert, more predator than human in that moment. Then he arrived at the table, and his trademark grin was firmly in place. "Ladies. I hear that you missed me." He settled into the chair next to Elena before Caroline had even finished rolling her eyes.

"Man or woman? Are they still here?" Damon asked, turning to Elena without further preamble.

"It was a man, and I'm not sure if he's still here." Elena tried to surreptitiously look around the room. "He was about your height, brown hair, blue shirt." She paused. "I'm sorry. I know that's not very helpful."

"We'll find him, Elena." Damon's eyes met hers, and Elena felt a small sense of relief. Damon would take care of her.

"And what will you do to him if you find him, Damon?" Bonnie's voice was like ice, and it jarred Elena out of her moment of relative calm.

"Kill him," Damon answered bluntly. He tilted his head to the side. "We're talking about another vampire, you know."

"You don't know that for sure. He could have been a warlock or a werewolf – or even a human."

"Why would a human know Katherine?" Damon's voice was genuinely puzzled. "He's a vampire," he went on confidently. "Do you object to me killing other vampires now?"

Elena couldn't take any more of the sparring between her friends. Not tonight. "Stop it, both of you."

They both fell silent at that, but not even Caroline could find a topic of conversation that would cut through the tension at the table. Damon's attention was all over the place as he sought out any threats in the restaurant, and Bonnie was primarily interested in shooting angry looks at Damon. Elena quickly realized that her fun night out was over. _Yet another attempt at the life of a normal teenager ruined_, Elena thought bitterly. She sighed. "I think it's time to call it a night," she told the table reluctantly.

Damon's response was instant. "I'll drive you home."

"Elena, are you sure?" Bonnie directed another glare at Damon. "Caroline and I can take you. You don't have to go with him."

"It's okay, Bonnie. I'll go with Damon." She hugged each of her friends. "Be careful getting home, okay?" They each nodded and left, and Elena felt Damon put his hand possessively on the small of her back as he guided her to his car. She knew his senses were still on high alert, looking for the vampire who had spoken to her, and she felt an odd mixture of relief and anxiety that Damon hadn't relaxed. He was taking this threat seriously, and she couldn't decide if that should make her feel safer or more afraid. She was also trying desperately to ignore the sensations that his touch roused in her body.

The short drive to her house was tense and silent. Elena finally spoke when they pulled up at the curb outside her house. The house was dark except for the porch light. It looked like no one was home. "Thank you for coming tonight," she said quietly. "I'm sorry Bonnie couldn't be civil."

"You know I'll protect you, Elena. No matter what." His voice was quiet, too, and she had the feeling that he was trying to hide something from her. "Let's get you safely inside."

Before she could blink he was at the passenger side of the car, opening the door for her. They were half way up the walkway to the door when Damon suddenly spun around, keeping her behind him.

The vampire from the Grill stood a few feet away. "Damon Salvatore," he said, his face disconcertingly expressionless to Elena's eyes. "I'll admit it was a bit of a surprise seeing you show up at her table."

Damon's eyes had narrowed. "Thomas," he said flatly.

"I have no quarrel with you, Damon. Give me the girl."

"Sorry, not an option." Damon tilted his head to the side in a familiar gesture.

"Tell me, then. What is a human who looks just like Katherine doing here? In Mystic Falls of all places?" Thomas sounded genuinely puzzled.

"Wouldn't we all like to know?" Damon answered, his voice filled with its usual sarcasm.

Elena tried to step out from behind Damon, but he held her back with one arm. "So you know I'm not Katherine?"

"Honey, it took me about fifteen minutes to figure that out. You look like her, but that seems to be where the resemblance stops. Although I'm looking forward to seeing what you taste like."

Elena felt a chill run up her spine at that. He was here for something as prosaic as feeding on her?

Thomas continued, "And I have to admit I'm curious how you ended up with Damon here. Seems like there must be a quite a story in that one. I'm sure I can get it out of you before I kill you."

Damon's eyes were glued to the other vampire. "Elena, get inside," he said softly. "Now."

"Come now, Damon," Thomas said, his voice cold. "You know I'm older and stronger than you. You can't win this."

Damon's voice held nothing but his usual cocky confidence. "You're not that much older," he scoffed. Elena hesitated behind him. He never looked at her, and she knew that his attention was focused on the other vampire. "Inside, Elena. I've got this."

Feeling strangled by fear, for herself and for Damon, Elena slowly pulled her keys out of her purse. She touched Damon's arm briefly before she backed toward the door.

Thomas was flying at her before she had taken more than a step, and she felt a scream lodge in her throat. Damon had been ready for him, however, and she could feel the reverberations of the blow as he met Thomas in mid-stride, crashing his body into the other vampire. The house actually shook as both vampires landed on the lawn with brutal force.

Elena fumbled desperately with her key, hands shaking as she tried to open the lock, resisting every instinct that said not to turn her back on a predator who wanted to kill her, on the fight raging behind her. Finally, the door opened, and she scrambled inside. She didn't shut the door, however, knowing that the real protection was the invisible barrier that would keep the strange vampire out. And shutting the door would feel like abandoning Damon. Instead she turned around to watch, her heart in her throat. Damon might need her help, not that she could do much against another vampire and apparently an old one at that.

The fight was too fast for the human eye to follow as the bodies of the two vampires rolled around together. She couldn't tell who was landing more blows. Suddenly, however, one body went flying into a tree, and she heard a sickening crack as he hit. It was Damon, she saw with horror. He was on his feet again almost instantly, but she didn't like the awkward way one of his arms seemed to hang at his side.

"Are you sure you don't want to hand her over to me, Damon?" Thomas was all predator as he stalked toward Damon. "I'll get her out of there eventually, but I'm betting you have an invite to the house. Hand her over to me and I'll let you live."

"That's not the way this scene ends." Damon's voice had lost none of its self-assurance even though he looked to be staggering a little on his feet. _How the hell does he do that?_ Elena wondered. She was terrified. _How does he sound totally unconcerned that he's about to die?_

"Your choice, Damon." Elena saw Thomas shrug. "This won't be like dying for Katherine, though, you know. This one is permanent."

He rushed Damon then, his movement too fast for Elena's eye to follow. Damon was thrown back into the tree as Thomas hit him, but to Elena's surprise, it was Thomas who collapsed to the ground. She saw a small tree branch protruding from his chest as his face turned gray with death.

Elena heard Damon's voice again. "I'm not planning to die today," he told the other vampire's body as he sank to his knees.

Elena was out the door before she could even think about the wisdom of her actions. "Damon, are you okay?" She knelt at his side.

Damon looked up at her, pain darkening his features. "You idiot, Elena." His voice was angry. "Get back inside. We don't know if he's alone."

"Not without you," Elena said stubbornly, trying to drag him to his feet.

He hissed in pain as she touched his arm, but he got his feet under him, shrugging off her assistance. He shoved her in front of him with his good arm, and he kept her there until they were both safely through the door.

Elena let out a breath that she didn't realize she had been holding as she closed the door behind Damon. She turned to see that he had collapsed on the couch, his head lying back and his eyes closed. She could see cuts and bruises on his face that healed even as she watched. His clothes were torn in numerous places from the brutal fight, and Elena could see blood, although she guessed the wounds on his body were probably healing as fast as those she could see. He was cradling his left arm gingerly, though, and Elena felt a surge of protectiveness toward him in that instant.

Her knees were a little shaky as she went to his side. "Are you okay?" she repeated, hesitating to touch him now. "Damon, your arm?"

He opened his eyes, and Elena felt like she could get lost in the deep blue as he gazed at her. "I'll be fine, Elena." He seemed to see her skepticism because he continued after a moment's pause. "The arm's broken, but it will heal. I think I have a couple of cracked ribs, too. It's been a while since I was in a fight like that. Thomas packed a punch." His voice was light and casual, sounding utterly unconcerned with his own physical wellbeing.

Elena raised her hand to hit him like she usually did when she didn't think he was taking things seriously enough, but she caught herself as she realized that it might actually hurt him right now. He raised his eyebrows at her, grinning, and she couldn't help but laugh. "Sorry, habit." She found herself staring into his eyes again, her breathing speeding up. To distract herself, she started talking again. "Was Thomas a lot older than you?"

Damon shrugged unconcernedly. "Thirty, forty years, maybe. Age isn't everything, Elena. I have a few tricks, you know."

"Or you got lucky that he threw you into a tree."

"Maybe I planned that."

Elena had her doubts, but she was just happy that it was Damon who had walked away from that fight. "Are you sure you're okay?" Part of her wanted to tell him just how scared she had been, to throw her arms around him and not let go. But she held herself back, telling herself it was just because he had admitted to broken ribs and therefore undoubtedly didn't want to be hugged right now. It wasn't at all that she was terrified of her feelings for Damon Salvatore.

Damon was looking at her strangely, but he didn't say anything as he levered himself up off the couch, his movements still lacking their usual grace.

"Are you leaving?" Elena asked, fear spreading through her again as he turned toward the door. "Damon, don't leave." Now she did grab his uninjured arm.

"Elena, I need blood. And I have a body to dispose of. We can't exactly leave it out on your front lawn. What would the neighbors say?"

Elena knew she was clutching his arm now. She wasn't sure why the thought of him leaving sent her into a panic. "Please don't go. Please don't leave me alone."

She saw concern and confusion fill his blue eyes at her words. "Elena, I really do have to move that body before anyone sees it. I can come back if you want . . ."

Elena nodded, accepting that as a compromise. He did have a point about the body. "You promise me you'll come back?"

Damon reached out to touch her face, gently brushing his finger against her cheek. "I promise." And then he was gone out the front door.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **_Elena is a bit all over the place in this one, but I think it's time for her to have a breakdown. _

**Disclaimer: **_I don't own any of the characters, unfortunately.__  
_

**Chapter 13**

Damon was gasping for breath by the time he had maneuvered Thomas's body into his trunk with one working arm. And he could feel every painful breath in his fucking ribs. Maybe he should just stop breathing since he didn't really need air to survive, he thought ruefully. But breathing was as instinctive to his vampire body as it had been as a human, and he didn't really know how to stop.

Damon dragged himself behind the wheel of his Camaro. He hadn't exactly been able to work with his usual speed, and he was lucky that he hadn't had to compel one of Elena's neighbors. He probably should have called Alaric to help him, but Damon was guessing the teacher was with Jenna so that could have been a bit awkward. And the faster he got that body out of here, the better.

Damon had decided to hide the body somewhere at the Boarding House until he was sure that Thomas – or any other vampires that were with him – hadn't left any dead victims in the area. He never knew when he might have to produce another vampire corpse to placate Liz and the Council. In fact, he was getting pretty sick of covering things up that way, although he now had quite the reputation as a vampire slayer. It was beyond ironic, really.

He had too many mysteries to deal with tonight, Damon thought as he drove slowly back toward his house. First, he still hadn't figured out who had kidnapped him, Elena, and Jeremy the previous week or why they had done it. Damon didn't like the feeling that some mysterious group might be after him – and Elena. And now there was Thomas's presence in Mystic Falls. He had crossed paths with the other vampire a couple of times over the decades, but he didn't know much about Thomas except that he too had a history with Katherine. So what had he been doing in this godforsaken town?

Damon glanced at Thomas's phone where it sat on the seat next to him. He had fished it out of the pocket of the dead man, knowing it would be his best source of information. He was pretty sure that Thomas had been in town alone or Damon would have been fighting more than one vampire at the house, but Thomas had made two calls in the half-hour before his death. That meant there was a good chance that he had told someone else about Elena.

And Elena's reaction to Damon's leaving had puzzled him more than he had let on. Why had she been so upset? Normally Damon would chalk it up to a reaction to stress, but Elena was usually tougher than that. She had seen a lot worse than that fight.

Damon sighed as he pulled up to the Boarding House. First, he needed blood. He was starving, and he knew that his healing was slow right now. His damned ribs and arm told him that, although broken bones always took longer to heal than cuts or other surface damage.

Even though he was tired and hurting, though, Damon didn't really mind the occasional good fight. It kept him on his toes and gave him a chance to unleash some of the vampire instincts that he had been ruthlessly suppressing for months now. His body was made to fight and kill, and he could feel a kind of satisfaction within the vampire part of him even as the human part worried about the implications of everything. He constantly felt torn in so many directions these days, he thought grimly, buffeted by instincts and emotions that didn't match up. His life was too damn complicated, really.

As Damon sank onto a couch with a couple of blood bags, he was glad that Stefan was locked away in his room brooding over his break-up with Elena. He didn't feel like dealing with his baby brother right now. Stefan would just want to go racing over to Elena's house to comfort her, and that would be awkward because they weren't together any more – and besides that was what Damon himself planned to do as soon as he had recovered a little. He told himself it was only because she had practically begged him until he had promised to come back. It wasn't at all that he desperately wanted to be with her. Nope, that wasn't it all.

•••••

Elena settled herself on her couch with a cup of tea, trying to stop shaking. She didn't know why the night's events had affected her so much. Maybe it had been having her momentary hope that the threats were finally over dashed so suddenly. Maybe it had been seeing Damon sitting on her couch nursing broken bones from defending her. She turned on the T.V. looking for a distraction, but she was hardly even aware of what she was watching. She suddenly remembered that she should check on Bonnie and Caroline since that vampire had clearly seen them together at the Grill. She sent out two quick text messages and got back almost instant replies that her friends were home safe. Elena decided not to mention that she had been attacked. She would fill them in tomorrow.

Before too long, Elena heard a soft knock on the door. She got up slowly and approached the door cautiously. Opening the door a crack, she saw Damon standing there. He raised his eyebrows and grinned. "I'm back, as requested."

Elena smiled as she opened the door wider. "Come in, Damon."

They stood awkwardly in the entryway a moment, neither knowing what to say. Elena saw Damon flex his left hand. "How's your arm?" she asked.

His smile turned rueful. "It's all healed. It just aches a little."

"I thought vampires were pretty much unbreakable?" Elena asked quietly. She felt like there was a lot she still didn't understand about vampires. Stefan was never very forthcoming. In fact, she had learned as much about vampire nature from a few conversations with Damon as in her entire relationship with Stefan. It was odd, really.

"Oh, we are. Pretty much the only thing that can break our bones is vampire strength. Or, you know, a major car crash or something like that." He shrugged. He gestured at the T.V. and changed the subject. "What are you watching?"

"I'm not sure," Elena admitted as she sat back down on the couch.

"Elena, you should go upstairs and go to sleep. It's been a long day."

Elena nodded. That seemed like a reasonable idea. She was certainly tired. "Will you stay?" She saw Damon hesitate, so she hurried to add, "Just for a few minutes." Then, feeling mischievous, she decided to tease him. "You're not going to turn down a chance to come up to my bedroom, are you?"

Damon grinned at that and did his eye thing that she secretly loved. "Well, when you put it that way . . ."

Damon followed Elena up the stairs to her room. "I'm just going to get ready for bed," Elena said quickly, not looking at her friend. She suddenly regretted that she had dragged Damon up to her room. Why was she so scared to be alone tonight? She grabbed a pair of pajamas and headed into the bathroom.

Elena stared into the mirror as she brushed her teeth, unable to tear her thoughts away from the mess that her life had become. What was the point of it all? How was she supposed to go away to college next year with vampires after her all the time? She couldn't live in a dorm like she had always planned – anyone might get invited in. Was she even going to live to be twenty or twenty-one? Elena was crying softly now, and she kept the water running, hoping that Damon wouldn't hear.

Finally, the tears stopped coming, and Elena washed her face in a futile attempt to hide the signs of crying from Damon. Why had she asked him to stay? Now she wanted to be alone to deal with her messed up life. Slowly she opened the door to return to her bedroom.

Damon was perched on her window seat. He looked thoroughly uneasy, and Elena was struck by the contrast with his past excursions into her room when he had arrogantly made himself at home. She remembered him lying on her bed with her teddy bear, digging through her underwear drawer . . . Now he looked as uncomfortable as Elena had ever seen Damon Salvatore look.

His sharp blue eyes met hers. "Are you okay, Elena?" he asked in a low voice.

Elena nodded. She didn't quite trust her voice.

•••••

Damon had heard Elena crying in the bathroom for what seemed like forever. He was utterly at a loss as to what to do. Should he knock on the door and try to comfort her? Leave her to be alone? He knew how to deal with threatening vampires, but crying women were far from his specialty.

Ultimately he stayed, since she had clearly wanted him to stay before she started crying. It was no wonder that she was having a breakdown with everything that had happened, he thought. Between her break-up with Stefan and the threats to her life – a new one seemed to show up every few days – she had far more to deal with than any eighteen-year old girl should ever have to face.

Hell, Damon thought, he was pretty close to a breakdown himself these days, and he had more than a hundred and fifty years on her. So he had waited awkwardly in her room, not sure what kind of comfort he would be able to offer her but wanting to do whatever he could to help. _I am so whipped_, he thought disgustedly. _I need to get out of here before I do something I'll regret_. But he stayed anyway.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: **_So I initially rated this story M largely out of paranoia, but I decided to have some fun with the M rating in this chapter. It's a bit of an experiment because smut is definitely not my comfort zone as a writer, so I look forward to hearing what you think (constructive criticism included, of course)._

**Disclaimer: **_Just having some fun with the characters, wishing I had a Damon of my own.__  
_

**Chapter 14**

Elena finally found her voice. "I guess you heard that, huh?"

Damon nodded and looked away.

"Damon, I'm okay, really. I just needed a moment."

"Elena." Her name sounded a bit strangled coming from Damon's throat, and suddenly he was right there in front of her. Elena looked up into Damon's blue eyes, which were entirely serious for once as he looked down at her. His gaze seemed to burn with intensity. She could feel his hands on her shoulders, his touch igniting her skin even through her shirt. "I won't let anything happen to you, Elena."

Elena tore her eyes from his and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. She was suddenly glad that he was there. "I know you won't." She felt him hesitate, and then his arms closed around her, returning her embrace. She rested her head against his shoulder. He smelled so good, and his arms were reassuringly strong around her even as his touch was gentle. Elena felt her fear fading a little as he held her, but something else was taking its place. She felt a sense of recklessness running through her. If her life was going to be short, she was going to live it and damn the consequences. She knew what she wanted right now, what she needed. She needed Damon.

Elena pulled back from Damon a little, and he let her go. "Are you okay?" he asked again, softly.

Elena nodded. Her eyes were locked on his for a moment, until she let them drop to his perfect pink lips. Without another moment's thought, she stretched up and crashed her lips against his, kissing him desperately. He returned her kiss just as hungrily, and Elena parted her lips to grant his tongue entrance to her mouth.

Damon's hands came up to cradle the sides of her face. His fingers slipped through her hair, caressing the sensitive skin of her neck. Elena had her arms locked around his body, and she pushed herself as close to him as possible, wanting more physical contact. She finally broke the kiss to catch her breath, only to gasp as Damon trailed kisses down her neck. His hands slid down her body, and she moaned as he lightly brushed her breast before his hands settled at her waist.

Her skin burned with desire where his touch found a gap between her pajama top and pants, and she suddenly needed skin-to-skin contact with him. She slipped her hands under his shirt, feeling the softness of his skin even as hard muscles rippled under her touch. "Damon," she moaned, everything except her need for him forgotten. Elena felt her back hit the wall, and she wrapped her legs around Damon's waist as he lifted her effortlessly. Their mouths were locked together again.

Elena fumbled clumsily with the buttons of Damon's shirt, finally getting access to his skin. She ran her hand up his body, brushing under his pec before teasing his nipple. She felt it as he moaned against her mouth, and the sound drove her even wilder with desire.

Then suddenly she felt him pull back slightly. "Elena," he said roughly. "We need to stop."

He certainly didn't sound like he wanted to stop, and she could feel his hardness against her. "Why?" she pouted, confused.

Damon was almost gasping for air against her shoulder, still holding her up. He was shaking. "Stefan," he murmured after a moment. "You're dating Stefan."

"I broke up with Stefan," she answered, trying to recapture his mouth with her own. Damon Salvatore, who was by far the sexiest man she had ever seen, was actually shaking with desire for her. Elena felt an unfamiliar sense of power and confidence in her own sexuality run through her. She brought her hand up and ran her fingers through Damon's silky black hair. She ignored a little voice that said that it had only been a day since she had broken things off with his brother. She had no intention of stopping with Damon. The passion between them felt far too good, and she needed something good in her life right now. She turned his head around so that she could meet his eyes. "I want you, Damon. I need you. Now."

Damon looked at her for a moment, his blue eyes almost glassy with lust. He didn't say anything, but Elena saw a recklessness to match hers rise in his eyes. He recaptured her mouth with a fierce, fiery kiss that went on and on. He slipped his hands under her top, and she obligingly raised her arms as he pulled it off over her head. She wasn't wearing a bra, and he dropped his mouth to her breast.

Elena groaned out his name as his tongue teased her already-hard nipple. She felt a strange feeling, and then he was depositing her gently on the bed. Elena giggled as she realized that he had used a burst of vampire speed to move them across the room. She took the opportunity to wriggle out of her pants and her underwear as Damon gazed down at her. "You are so beautiful," he said softly, and Elena felt her heart clench at the complete absence of his usual sarcasm. He was completely open to her, completely vulnerable, in that moment. Elena watched as he swiftly shed the rest of his clothes, and she felt her eyes widen a little at her first glimpse of him naked. She was very pleased at what she saw, and she giggled again as his familiar cocky grin reappeared at her expression.

"Come here, Damon," she said, grabbing his hand to draw him to her on the bed. He obliged her immediately, holding himself above her as he kissed her, capturing her mouth with a deep, slow, sensual kiss that made her shiver. He finally pulled away from her mouth and kissed his way down her neck and chest before teasing her by tracing slow circles around her nipple with his tongue. One hand was gently squeezing her other breast, and her body was quivering with sensation. She already felt like she was going to explode when his other hand slipped between her legs, his finger teasing her clit. "Oh, god. Damon!" she moaned.

Elena lost all control of her body as Damon kissed his way down her stomach to her naval, his hand still driving her toward orgasm. He slipped a finger inside her, and she thrust her hips up off the bed, seeking more friction. Waves of pleasure were buffeting her body, and she cried out his name again as her orgasm seized her.

As Elena came partially down from her high, she could feel Damon's body against hers. He was kissing her again, and every inch of her was still on fire at his touch. She could feel how hard he was, and she was astonished at his control. She didn't want to wait any longer, though. She couldn't wait any longer. "Damon, I want you inside of me. Now. Please," she gasped.

She felt him position himself at her entrance, and then he slipped part way inside. She tilted her hips to give him a better angle even as he pulled out again, teasing her. "Please," she begged again. He pushed further in then, pausing as she adjusted her body to accept him. She wrapped her legs around his waist, trying to pull him closer to her. She felt like she couldn't wait another second as he finally began to thrust agonizingly slowly. His finger was back teasing her clit again, and Elena wanted to demand that he move faster. She was past words, however.

Damon moaned something that she couldn't follow as he finally sped up his thrusts, unerringly finding the perfect spot, and Elena felt another orgasm sweeping through her body, even more intense than the first had been. She tightened around Damon, crying out as her orgasm went on and on, and she finally felt him follow her, releasing into her as he cried out her name.

Damon collapsed half on top of her, both of them breathing heavily and slick with sweat. He lay there for just a moment before rolling off to settle himself beside her. Unwilling to let him get too far away, Elena curled herself closer, and Damon brought his arm around her. She rested her head on his chest, tracing little circles on his skin with her fingers as they lay in companionable silence.

Elena wasn't sure she ever wanted to move from that position. Her body felt comfortably sated and more relaxed than she had been in a very long time. She felt a need to say something, however. "That was . . ." she began. Then she stopped, unable to think of a word that contained everything she wanted to say.

"Magic?" Damon finished for her.

"Yes," Elena said, smiling. She pushed herself up then, kissing him lightly. "What if I want more?" she said teasingly. She wanted to show him that she could control herself a little better than that, drive him as crazy as he had just made her. Before he could answer, she had dropped her lips back to his, more insistent this time, and she felt his answer in his return kiss. Feeling bold, she slipped a hand down his body to his cock, which she could already feel hardening again.

"You can have whatever you want," Damon said when she finally paused for breath, and Elena smiled in anticipation of what else they could do together that night. Then she kissed him again.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: **_Sorry about the delay in updating - I had to focus on real life (work) for a few days and try to get Damon out of my head. It only sort of worked, of course! Anyway, now I'm back._

_The (very) brief recap, in case you've forgotten: last chapter, Elena and Damon finally hooked up. But what happens the morning after, especially since neither of them really meant for it to happen?_

**Disclaimer:**_ I still don't own any of the characters.  
_

**Chapter 15**

Elena woke up just as the dawn light was beginning to show through her curtains. She could feel Damon's arm lying heavily across her hip, and she could hear his deep breathing as he slept. She felt a smile creeping over her face. Last night had been flat-out mind-blowing and it felt _right_ somehow to wake up with Damon in her bed.

She was wide-awake now, though, and she slipped out from under his arm as gently as she could. Damon murmured something in his sleep, but he didn't stir and she was glad. She needed to think, and being that close to Damon, even a sleeping Damon, was way too distracting. If he woke up now, she knew she wouldn't get a chance to sort out her thoughts. Plus she was pretty sure that he needed the sleep. He had to be tired from fighting that other vampire along with – and Elena felt her body responding just to the memory – everything they had done afterwards.

Elena slipped on a tank top and a pair of sweats and settled herself in her window seat with a blanket. Her eyes were drawn back to the bed, however. Damon lay on his stomach, his black hair tousled from sex and sleep. He looked younger with his face relaxed in sleep, and Elena thought that maybe she was looking at human Damon in that moment, the young man he had been so long ago. He was also naked and only half-covered by a sheet, seemingly oblivious to the chilly morning, and Elena felt herself blushing – the scenery was breathtaking. She could definitely get used to Damon Salvatore in her bed. In fact, she wasn't at all sure she could give him up after last night.

That was going to be tricky, though, and that was what she needed to sort out in her mind. She knew she had let things happen too fast with Damon. Hell, she had just broken up with Stefan two days ago, and now she had jumped into bed with his brother. She remembered with a flash of guilt that Damon had even tried to slow things down last night. She knew that all of her friends would blame him for seducing her when, really, she had to admit that it had been at least mutual seduction. In fact, Elena realized with a jolt of surprise, she had initiated it each time they had kissed.

Elena was used to being the good girl, and it was going to be hard that most of her friends and family didn't like or trust Damon. She thought he could win them over eventually, except maybe Bonnie, but she wasn't exactly looking forward to explaining the situation. And worse than that, she was afraid of what her hooking up with Damon would do to Stefan. She sighed, burying her head in her hands. When had things gotten so screwed up?

Eventually, Elena realized that her thoughts were just leading her in circles, and she slipped back into bed, hoping for a few more minutes of sleep before her alarm went off. Tomorrow was a school day, after all. Damon instinctively drew her closer to him almost as soon as she was back under the covers, and she let herself relax in his arms, wishing she could stop time and just stay there.

•••••

Elena awoke again to the buzzing of her alarm, and she reached out automatically to hit the snooze. As she settled back for a few more minutes of sleep, she heard Damon's voice, low with sleep and even sexier than usual. "Morning, gorgeous." She felt him slip closer behind her, his arm still around her. He swept her hair away from her neck and trailed soft kisses down her skin. Elena stifled a moan and heard Damon's low laugh in response. "I could get used to this," he whispered in her ear, and Elena felt herself smiling as his words echoed her thoughts earlier.

Damon's lips were continuing to places kisses on her neck and shoulder. He moved the strap of her tank top out of his way, and she heard his soft voice again, tinged with mock disappointment. "Hey, when did you put clothes on?"

"I was cold, okay." But Elena couldn't help but smile at his continued attentions to her body, and she knew he could hear it in her voice.

"I can fix that," he answered seductively, slipping his hand under her tank.

Unfortunately, her alarm chose that moment to go off again, reminding Elena that she had school to get ready for. Jenna could open the door any minute to make sure she was awake, and her aunt catching Damon in her bed would definitely not be the best way to introduce her to the new status of their relationship. "Damon, I have school," she said reluctantly, trying half-heartedly to move his hand off her body.

"Skip it," he answered promptly. He placed another kiss on her shoulder. "I'll compel anyone you want me to."

"Damon," Elena said reprovingly. "You wouldn't want to be a bad influence on me, now would you?"

"Of course I would." But Damon rolled away from her with a sigh.

They both lay there silently for a moment. For all her protestations, Elena wasn't at all ready to face the day, and she was briefly tempted to take Damon up on his offer to get her out of school. He interrupted her thoughts by propping himself up on an arm to look down at her.

"What are you thinking right now?" he asked quietly.

Elena hesitated, searching for the right words and still not finding them. She tried not to look at him. Finally she said, "Damon, last night was beyond amazing, but . . ." She stopped, knowing she needed to tread carefully.

"For me, too," he said, and she did look at him then, surprised. She had expected some cocky line, and she was shocked at the sincerity and something else – love? – that shown in his expressive eyes.

"Damon." His name slipped from her lips before she could stop herself, and she found her gaze darting between his beautiful eyes and his perfect lips. She wanted nothing more than to kiss him then and claim him as hers.

He must have heard something in her voice, however, and she saw his walls come back up in the instant that she hesitated. Elena felt tears come to her eyes, terrified that she was losing him.

Damon lay back on the bed, not looking at her. "You said 'but,'" he said carefully, no emotion in his voice.

Elena's voice was small, and she sounded scared to her own ears. "I _just_ broke up with Stefan, Damon, and I don't . . ."

He didn't even let her finish before he was up and out of the bed. "Damon?" Elena said, suddenly acutely aware of just how badly she was screwing up yet again. Damon pulled on his jeans too quickly for Elena to do more than watch, stunned by his reaction to her words. He didn't even bother with his shirt, and he was out the window before Elena had even managed to untangle herself from the covers to try to stop him. "Damon, wait. That's not what I meant," she said desperately, but the room was empty except for the cold breeze coming in through the open window.

Elena sat on her bed, alone, and stared blankly at the dark shirt Damon had left behind on her floor. She buried her face in her hands. Why hadn't she just kissed him? She had momentarily forgotten how unstable Damon could be when it came to his emotions, and she was terrified of what she had just done to him. She had caught his gaze for a second as he had dressed, and she thought the look in his ice blue eyes would haunt her forever. He had looked absolutely shattered.

**A/N:**_ Okay, don't hate me! But we wouldn't want things to be too easy for our favorite couple, now would we? So Elena says the wrong thing and Damon jumps to conclusions. . . ._


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: **_I'm just having fun with Damon and the other characters. I don't own them._

**Chapter 16**

Damon had fled from Elena's room before she could actually say the words that would finish breaking him. He had seen remorse in her eyes when he had asked her what she was thinking, and it had deepened when he tried to convey to her what the previous night had meant to him. So he had gotten out of there before she could tell him that it had all been a mistake, that she had just been playing with him before going back to Stefan.

He slammed his hand into the steering wheel of his car and jumped when the horn sounded loudly. Damn it, this was why he hated small towns. There was nowhere to get a drink at 7:00 in the morning, especially when you were pretending to be an upstanding citizen. _At least in a city, there was always somewhere that a guy could be anonymous and get fucking wasted._

Not that, Damon thought with a glance down at himself, anywhere would serve him right now since he had forgotten his shirt in Elena's room. _I could break into a bar_, Damon thought. _Have the place all to myself._

But ultimately, he found himself driving back to the Boarding House, even at the risk of running into Stefan, who was the second-to-last person he wanted to see right now.

Entering his house, Damon went straight to one of his carts of alcohol and poured himself a drink. Yep, there was only one possible way to approach the day. Today he was once again going to test just how drunk a vampire could get.

Throwing back a second drink, Damon added another stage to his plan. He needed a shower. Elena's scent was all over him, and it was driving him crazy. Crazier. Third drink in hand, he blurred up the stairs to his bedroom.

Damon was back downstairs, now smelling of nothing more than his soap and shampoo and already on his second bottle of scotch, when Stefan walked in. "Damon, what are you doing?"

Stefan and Elena were obviously perfect for each other, Damon thought. They both liked to ask stupid questions. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm drinking, obviously."

"Isn't it a little early for that? Even for you?" He could almost smell the judgment coming off of Stefan. And unfortunately, it was probably deserved this time. He was pretty sure that sleeping with your brother's girlfriend – even if they were on a break – was frowned upon. Not to mention society's general, if irrational, objection to alcohol before breakfast.

Damon's phone rang, and he wasn't surprised to see that it was Elena calling as he pulled it out of his pocket. He didn't answer it, however. He could hear the conversation playing out in his mind. She would tell him how sorry she was, how she cared about him – and then she would tell him that she loved Stefan. It would always be Stefan. Damon was pretty sure those words would haunt him forever, literally. Especially after last night.

Stefan had crinkled up his forehead, giving Damon one of his worried looks. "Are you going to answer that?"

"Nope." Damon turned off his phone and put it back in his pocket.

"Damon, what's going on with you today?"

"What is this, twenty questions?" Damon wasn't about to stay there any longer with Stefan wearing that faux-concerned look and quizzing him about things his baby brother really didn't want to know. He needed to go somewhere that no one would bother him. And he knew just the place, not to mention just the crate of alcohol to bring with him. "You have a good day, brother."

Swaying a little on his feet, Damon waved a hand at his brother as he left the room. It crossed his mind that he should really have some blood before he left, but he dismissed the idea. It was easier to get drunk on an empty stomach, and so far he was pretty pleased with how well his plan to get wasted was going.

•••••

Stefan stared after his brother, but he let him go. Something was obviously wrong with Damon; Stefan hadn't seen him drinking like that since he found out Katherine wasn't in the tomb. Was Katherine back in town? That would be the final straw that would make his life complete. He was pretty sure that Damon wouldn't keep that a secret, though, and Damon clearly hadn't wanted to talk. Stefan decided that he didn't really have the energy to deal with Damon's problems today of all days and headed back up to his room. Damon could take care of himself.

•••••

Damon settled his crate of alcohol on the ground and sat down on a surprisingly comfortable log. He had driven out to part of the old Salvatore property where he had come before when he needed to think. No one else came out here, not even Stefan, and he was sure it would be a peaceful place to let alcohol deaden his pain.

Everything was quiet as he opened his latest bottle of scotch and chugged a third of it straight from the bottle. Even the birds had gone silent at the presence of a dominant predator in the forest. Damon laughed to himself, finding that funny all of a sudden. He wasn't a threat to birds. That was Stefan. No, he was a threat to humans. And apparently to himself since he couldn't stop putting himself in these impossible situations. This time he truly did need to leave Mystic Falls. Even the birds would be better off without him.

By the time Damon had finished off that bottle and moved on to another, the birds had gotten used to his presence. He listened to their chirping as he idly watched a squirrel run up a tree.

The next bottle sparked a brief urge to destroy something, and he started to stand up only to half fall back onto his seat. Oooh, this was good. Too drunk to stand. He wasn't sure he had ever managed that before as a vampire. His damned accelerated healing burned off alcohol far too quickly. Too bad he could still remember why he was drinking, could still see Elena's face in his mind and feel her hands on his skin, her body under his, her lips. . . . Damon cursed and took another long drink.

He was too drunk to notice that the birds had stopped chirping again, too far gone to hear someone ghost up beside him. He heard her only as she sat down on the log next to him. Then his drugged senses finally registered the presence of a threat, and he turned toward her, looking at her through bleary eyes. "Isobel?"

"I'm sorry, Damon." Isobel jammed a syringe of vervain into Damon's arm before he could react and watched as he toppled off the log, unconscious.

**A/N: **_Sorry, cliffhanger! Damon is in trouble (again). Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read and/or review!_


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: **_My little story passed fifty reviews with the last chapter, so thank you all!_

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own _The Vampire Diaries._  
_

**Chapter 17**

Isobel looked down at Damon's body, feeling a twinge of regret. "What happened to you, Damon?" she murmured quietly to herself. She remembered the Damon she had known before she had become a vampire and after he had turned her. He had been a force of nature – crazy, wild, seductive, and thoroughly amoral, but also passionate and sharply intelligent. Definitely an advertisement for the vampire lifestyle. Isobel had decided that she wanted to become a vampire before she ever met him – it was why she had sought him out – but Damon had persuaded her, too.

This Damon? It had been a lost, broken man who had looked at her just now. She knew Katherine had toyed with him, and she also suspected that this whole crazy situation would get them all eventually. But Damon should never have turned his emotions back on, Isobel decided. It had made him weak. Good thing she didn't care.

Isobel heard a car drive up behind her, and she listened as the driver got out of the car and began to root around in the trunk. She continued to stare down at Damon. Broken or not, he was still sinfully attractive. "It's done," she told John Gilbert as he joined her.

"Thank you, Isobel," John said. He dragged Damon's arms behind him and began to tie them with ropes. Isobel did nothing to help, knowing that the ropes had been soaked in vervain. She winced as Damon's skin began to smoke and blister where the vervain touched it. She suspected the ropes were overkill. Damon had been nearly passed out drunk, so she doubted he would wake up anytime soon from the vervain she had injected into his system, and she also knew John wasn't taking him all that far.

Isobel felt another twinge of feeling – pity? – for Damon as John finished and began to drag the vampire toward the car. She knew that John had tried to kill Damon several times over the past year, only to have Damon slip through his fingers each time. This time, if she were a betting woman, she would have to bet on John Gilbert.

•••••

Elena checked her phone for about the hundredth time since she had gotten to school. Still no return call or text from Damon. She had called him as soon as she had gotten her thoughts together that morning, desperately wanting to make things right with him. His phone had rung that time, but he hadn't picked up and now his phone was going straight to voicemail. He was ignoring her texts, too. _Damn it, Damon. Call me back_, Elena thought desperately.

"Elena? Earth to Elena?" Caroline was looking at her worriedly, and Elena looked around the classroom in confusion. They were the only two students still there. "Class is over. Finally! It's lunchtime, Elena."

"Oh, sorry Caroline. Let's go."

"You're going to have to tell me all about it, you know. Whatever was taking your mind off English class. Because I _so_ need a distraction with math coming up after lunch. That class is so boring that I swear it makes the blood cravings worse. I start staring at Mrs. Adams' neck and then I can't think of anything else. It's gross!"

Elena laughed at her friend's ramblings, even though her mind was still on Damon. She and Caroline stopped at their lockers to pick up their lunches before heading outside to a picnic table.

"Okay, spill," Caroline said, looking at Elena worriedly.

Elena hesitated. She wanted to talk to someone, but she had no idea where to begin. And Caroline was, well, Caroline, plus she didn't like Damon, for very good reasons.

"I'm going to get it out of you, Elena, even if I have to torture you. So you might as well just tell me. Who are you expecting to call you? Stefan? Are you two getting back together?"

Caroline was nothing if not persistent, Elena thought with a sign, and she was going to start spreading all the wrong rumors if Elena didn't explain. And Elena did want to talk to someone, so she found herself telling her friend about the attack when she had gotten home and Damon killing Thomas to protect her. "Then I asked him to stay, Caroline," Elena said. "And we . . . Well, we hooked up."

"You hooked up with Damon?" Caroline sounded horrified. "What were you thinking, Elena? How far did you go?"

Elena closed her eyes, not wanting to see her friend's reaction. "We went all the way," she whispered.

She opened her eyes to see Caroline staring at her. "You had sex with Damon Salvatore?"

Elena nodded miserably. "That's not the bad part, Car. That part was great, actually." She couldn't stop a little smile from coming to her face at the memory. "It's what I said to him afterwards." She stopped, unable to go on.

"What did you say?" Caroline prompted her. She resumed talking before Elena could answer, however. "I'm trying not to judge here, Elena. I really am. I mean, I'm in no position to judge anyone's choices. But Damon? Really? I mean yes, he's hot and he _is _great in bed, and he cares about you, but . . ."

"Stop, Caroline," Elena said firmly. "I haven't forgotten what Damon did to you, or Jeremy, but he's changed and you know it."

Caroline sighed. "Maybe. He's been better, but . . . you have more faith in him than I do. So what could you possibly have said that was so bad?"

"I might have . . . brought up Stefan. In the morning, I mean."

"You brought up Stefan while you were in bed with Damon?" Caroline's eyes were wide. "That's like something I would do. You're supposed to be the one who's good with talking and relationships and stuff, Elena. Was Damon upset?"

"Upset doesn't even begin to describe it," Elena said ruefully. "He took off before I could explain anything. And now he won't return my calls."

"You have to talk to him, Elena. I mean, you know Damon isn't my favorite person, but that's got to have messed with his head. If you want things to work with him – and I'm getting the sense that you do, god only knows why – you have to talk to him."

"I know, but how am I supposed to do that if he won't call me back? I have no idea where he is. And if I go to the Boarding House, Stefan will probably be there . . ." Elena looked at her friend, her eyes pleading. "I'm afraid I've hurt them both so much, Car. Am I just like Katherine?"

Caroline covered Elena's hand with hers. "Elena, you could never be like Katherine. So you made a mistake – you're only human. You'll work things out with Damon, if that's what you want. He'll forgive you. I mean, you've forgiven him for a lot worse. Personally, I would go with Stefan, though, just so you know. He's the good guy."

"I know it's weird, but it just feels right with Damon, Caroline," Elena said as the bell rang signaling that lunch was over. Her phone was still silent. "I'm just going to try him one more time before class."

•••••

John Gilbert dragged Damon's unconscious body into the cell. He untied the vervain-soaked ropes binding the vampire's arms, shaking his head at the damage to Damon's skin from the vervain. He could see it healing even as he replaced the ropes with metal shackles that connected to chains locked to the floor. He shackled Damon's ankles as well, and then stood back, admiring his handiwork. He was finally going to get the Salvatore brothers out of Elena's life and out of Mystic Falls once and for all.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: **_Sorry this is a short one, but hopefully you will enjoy it. Damon is in big trouble, still. . . . This story is showing a tendency to keep growing more complicated on me, but there is some good stuff coming up. (And yes, I do have a plan for it that hopefully will tie everything together, although Damon and I might share some characteristics as planners.)  
_

**Disclaimer: **_I wish I owned Damon, but no such luck.__  
_

**Chapter 18**

Damon woke to pain and crippling weakness throughout his body and a feeling that his head was going to explode. Clearly, alcohol and vervain did not mix well, which was something that he probably could have figured out without first-hand experience. He forced his eyes open. He wasn't in the goddamn basement of the Boarding House, but the place looked familiar. Then memory kicked in. Was he really back in that same damn cell that he had escaped from two weeks ago? Damon shifted his head enough to see the broken video camera in the corner. Yep, same place. The shackles on his wrists and ankles were definitely new, though. He had a bad feeling that he wasn't going to be escaping this time, and in truth, there wasn't a lot of fight left in him.

He heard footsteps, and a pair of feet came into view. "Damon, nice to see that you're awake. I have to tell you that you don't look so good, though." It was a familiar voice, but it took Damon a minute to place it. Then he had it. John Gilbert. Fucking John Gilbert. He should have figured out that there would be a connection between anyone who showed up in Mystic Falls to torture him for fun and John Gilbert.

For once, Damon couldn't think of a snappy comeback, so he didn't say anything. John wasn't done talking, though. "That was a nice Houdini act that you pulled getting out of here last time, Damon. As you can see, I've made some improvements to ensure that it doesn't happen again." He gestured at the chains binding Damon. "I didn't appreciate you killing my people, although Marcella was a bit of a loose cannon. Committed to the cause, but she didn't follow orders all that well. She was never supposed to bring Elena and Jeremy into it, so I do apologize for that. I suppose if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. I do respect that you do your own dirty work, Damon."

John's monologue was only making Damon's headache worse. "You know, the rambling villain is quite the cliché, John," he snarked.

John glared at Damon. "I'm actually the hero here, Damon, although I'm not surprised that you can't see it." He paused briefly before continuing in another vein. "Whatever her flaws, Marcella's research into vampires was quite informative, and I think I can safely say that this is the last time you will ever wake up." Damon could see yet another syringe of vervain in John's hands as his tormentor knelt down. "Any last words?" John asked, that smarmy smile that Damon had come to hate on his face.

Damon still wasn't thinking very clearly, although anger burned through his mind now. Unfortunately, it was no match for the vervain that kept him helpless. "Why not just stake me?" he asked.

"I understand that dessication is a far more painful way to die," John said spitefully. "And this way, I can honestly tell Elena and Jeremy that I never killed you. You're simply going to disappear, Damon, and I doubt anyone will miss you for long."

Unfortunately, Damon thought John was probably right about that. There was a reason Damon only counted on himself, and his time looked to have finally run out. Elena might look for him, and she was smart and stubborn and resourceful, but Damon ruthlessly suppressed that hope almost immediately. He had made a lot of people disappear himself over the decades, and it was damned easy to do. "Fuck you," he spat out, letting his last words be empty defiance as John stabbed him with the syringe.

•••••

John Gilbert picked up Damon's phone after sending his prisoner back into oblivion. He turned it on to find seven phone messages and ten unread texts. For an evil soulless vampire, Damon Salvatore was awfully popular today. He saw that five of the messages and all of the texts were from Elena, and Liz Forbes and Alaric Saltzman had also called Damon. John briefly scanned through the text messages, finding a number of variations of _I'm sorry_, _please let me explain_, and _where are you?_ He wondered what exactly had happened between his daughter and Damon. It looked like he might have gotten Damon out of the way just in time.

After a moment's thought, John typed a reply to Elena's latest text message. _ Left town. Don't bother trying to contact me._ That seemed obscure and cold enough to discourage anyone from looking for Damon, he thought as he hit send. He would keep things simple and let Elena spread the message to anyone else who might actually miss Damon enough to look for him. He locked the cell behind him with a feeling of satisfaction. One vampire down, one more to catch.

•••••

Elena stared at the message on her phone. _Left town. Don't bother trying to contact me._ It didn't make any sense. Damon wouldn't just leave. He couldn't possibly be that upset, could he? Not when a vampire had tried to kill her just the night before, and he had been worried about other vampires in town. Had she broken things between them that badly? He hadn't left after Katherine wasn't in the tomb, he hadn't left after he killed Jeremy, and he hadn't left after she told him that he had lost her forever. She knew that Damon tried to avoid his feelings as much as possible, but surely he wouldn't just leave when she had finally returned them, even if they had had a misunderstanding. He wouldn't leave, would he?

Elena picked up the black shirt that Damon had abandoned on her floor that morning. It still smelled like him, and Elena found herself crying softly as she clutched the shirt to her. She desperately wanted to fix things with Damon, but she didn't know how to do that if he wouldn't talk to her. She picked up her phone to dial his number again, and once again it went straight to voice mail.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

The next afternoon after school, Elena reluctantly drove to the Boarding House. Damon was still ignoring all her calls and texts after that one obscure message, and she couldn't shake a feeling that something had happened to him.

Elena knocked softly on the door, hoping desperately that Damon would open it. She didn't care if he was furious with her or drunk out of his mind or . . . well, drunk was the most likely possibility, but she could deal with that – even though she well knew just how dangerous and unpredictable a drunk-and-upset Damon could be. She just wanted to see him and explain things. This time she knew _she_ had made the mistake, and she just wanted to make things right between them.

It was Stefan who opened the door, however. He didn't look good, Elena thought. He was wearing a slightly dirty white wifebeater tank, and he looked pale and gaunt, his eyes shadowed.

"Elena?" he asked. The look on his face at the sight of her was a combination of puzzlement and growing hope, and Elena felt her heart clench.

"Hi, Stefan. How are you doing?"

"I miss you, Elena. I miss you so much." Stefan stepped to the side so that she could enter the house. He continued slowly, his voice serious. "I'm dealing with it, though. I haven't relapsed."

"I wish you would come back to school," Elena said, suddenly meaning it. "Caroline has been asking about you. And I think Ric is getting frustrated that no one ever knows the answer in history class now."

Stefan smiled then, but it had a feeling of sadness. "I guess Ric will have to work a little harder at teaching, although at least now no one will question the accuracy of the textbook. And Caroline called me about going hunting together, but I'm just not quite ready to see anyone."

"Caroline's a good friend, and I know she misses you. We all do," Elena said absently. She was thinking about how relatively well Caroline had reacted to the news about her and Damon, which brought her mind back to the reason she had come to the house.

Stefan called her back to the present by touching her arm tentatively. "Elena, is there any chance for us? Is that why you came by?"

Elena hated to kill the hope in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Stefan. I want us to be friends, but I think that's all we can be."

Stefan turned away from her, hiding his expression. "Then why are you here, Elena?"

"I . . . " Elena hesitated, knowing that her words were about to hurt Stefan. "I was wondering if you've seen Damon? I guess he's not here, and he hasn't been returning my calls."

"You've been calling Damon?" Stefan turned back to her with a suspicious look. "I haven't seen him since yesterday morning. He was busy drowning himself in alcohol for breakfast."

Elena's heart sank, and Stefan must have seen something in her expression because his eyes narrowed. "Did something happen between you and Damon, Elena?" he asked.

_This is exactly why I didn't want to see Stefan_, Elena thought, desperately trying to come up with a neutral way to explain what had happened between her and Damon. "He misunderstood something I said, and I just need to talk to him to explain it."

Stefan didn't look convinced. He had some experience with lies of omission himself, Elena thought, and maybe that was why he didn't ask her to elaborate. "I don't think he's been here since yesterday, unless he stopped in while I was out hunting," Stefan explained.

"I'm worried something's happened to him. All I've heard from him is this strange text that said he left town and didn't want to be contacted." Elena was pretty sure that Stefan would hear the desperation in her voice and see it in her eyes, but she couldn't give up on Damon that easily.

Stefan closed his eyes in frustration. "That sounds just like him," he sighed. "Elena, this is Damon we're talking about. He's probably feeding on a sorority somewhere. This is just what he does – it's a minor miracle that he's stuck around this long. I'm sure he's fine."

"He wouldn't just take off, Stefan," Elena insisted doggedly. She tried to ignore the image of Damon with a bunch of college sorority girls. Was it possible that Damon had decided he wanted nothing more to do with an unremarkable eighteen-year old girl like Elena? She wasn't exactly experienced compared to Damon, and although she knew she was pretty enough, she thought she wasn't in his league as far as looks went either. She knew Damon could have just about any woman he wanted, ultimately, and trouble seemed to follow her like a black cloud lately. But she just couldn't believe that of him. She knew how much he cared about her; he had shown it more than enough times. "Is his car here? Can I check his room?"

Stefan sighed. "No, his car's not here. You can check his room if you want, but Damon comes and goes on his own whims. You won't find him if he doesn't want to be found." He pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I'll try calling him, I guess."

Elena watched as Stefan hung up the phone as it went straight to Damon's voice mail. She thought she saw a flash of concern in his eyes, but his expression didn't change. "I'm sure he's fine, Elena," he repeated. "Damon's very good at protecting his own skin. I wouldn't waste my time worrying about him, if I were you."

Elena ignored that comment. "You'll call me if you hear from him, right? Or if he comes home?" Stefan nodded, if a bit reluctantly, and Elena felt slightly reassured. Stefan was probably right that Damon was fine and had just taken off for a few days to think. ''I'm just going to go take a look around his room, in case there are any clues." Stefan just sighed again and waved a hand in the direction of the staircase.

Elena walked quickly up the familiar stairs to the far-less-familiar door to Damon's room. She had still only been in his room a few times, mostly when Rose was sick. She turned the knob and slowly pushed open the closed door. The room was perfectly neat except for a pile of books next to the huge bed, which was neatly made. There was no sign that Damon had slept here last night, Elena thought. She checked his dresser and then his closet, finding nothing out of place and no sign that he had packed for a trip. She smiled at the long row of dark shirts hanging in the closet, letting her hand trail over a soft, charcoal gray pullover that she was sure she had seen Damon wear several times. The clothes and the room suddenly reminded her so much of Damon, with all his contradictions, and she felt her eyes fill with tears.

As she perched on the corner of his bed to think, Elena was more and more certain that something bad had happened to Damon. She knew that he was tough and that he could take care of himself – he wouldn't have survived over 145 years as a vampire otherwise – but she also knew that he was far from invincible. She vividly remembered Stefan saving him on Founders' Day and how she and Caroline had arrived just in time to stop Caroline's mom from executing both of the Salvatore brothers just a few weeks later. And most recently, she had saved Damon's life with her blood. _Damn it, where are you, Damon? _she thought desperately. No answer came from the room or Damon's things, of course.

•••••

After two more days and still no sign of Damon, Stefan was starting to worry about his brother. He knew that the most likely explanation was still that Damon was off on a bender somewhere, but Elena was freaking out and it was starting to get to him. Between Elena's evasiveness and Damon's strange behavior the last time Stefan had seen him, he was pretty sure that something had happened between her and Damon that had set off this whole disappearing act, but he didn't know what to do about that. So he was still hanging around the house, hoping that Damon would call or turn up and that in the meantime nothing too dangerous would come after Elena.

Bonnie was apparently refusing to try a locator spell, insisting that the town and Elena were better off without Damon, so Stefan didn't really know where they would start looking for his trouble-making brother anyway. He had called Ric, who was out of town with Jenna, to confirm that he hadn't heard from Damon, but he literally didn't know of any out-of-town friends that Damon might have contacted or gone to visit. Damon had always insisted that he didn't have any friends, and although Stefan doubted the truth of that – Damon could be quite charming in his own abrasive way, and he must have made some connections in 145 years – he actually didn't know of any.

Stefan walked down the staircase to the first floor of the Boarding House. The place was beginning to seem much too quiet without Damon around, and Stefan couldn't believe that he actually missed his brother. He paused in the hallway as a sound caught his attention. "Damon?" he asked hopefully. "Is that you?"

Instead of an answer, however, Stefan felt a stake penetrate his back. It had missed his heart, but the pain and shock knocked him to the ground. As he lay gasping for air, and before he could even check to see if he could reach the stake to pull it out, he felt another vampire kneel beside him. He turned his head to see Isobel just as she jabbed a vervain dart into his shoulder. As Stefan lost consciousness, his final thought was that Elena had probably been right to worry about Damon.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: **_I needed someone out running around in the woods (other than Stefan), so I brought back Tyler for this chapter. As always, thank you very much for reading and reviewing!_

**Chapter 20**

Tyler was exploring a new part of the woods of Mystic Falls when he saw the car. Since he had become a werewolf, he had found himself taking longer and longer runs, enjoying the woods. He had chalked it up to some primal wolf thing.

This was a strange place to find a car, however, especially a light blue Camaro. It was pretty far off the beaten path. Tyler had a strange feeling as he approached the car, and he looked around, trying to figure out what was wrong. "Anybody here?" he called out.

Stopping at the car, Tyler found it empty, keys lying on the front seat. Whoever owned this car was not very cautious about its safety, Tyler thought. Then he saw the bottles of liquor by the log on the other side of the car. He still didn't sense anyone around, and suddenly Tyler knew what was bugging him about the car. He had seen it before. He pulled out his phone slowly. "Caroline, what kind of car did you say that asshole Damon drives?"

He listened to her response and had to smile. "You know I don't like the guy either. But you said he's missing, right? I think I found his car."

•••••

Elena was out of Caroline's car almost before her friend had come to a stop. Tyler had been right – that was Damon's car, but what was it doing out here in the middle of nowhere? And where was Damon? She was more certain than ever that something had happened to him.

"Hi, Elena." Tyler was giving her a weird look. "I've looked everywhere around here, and there's no sign of anyone. Just this." He gestured to the far side of the car, and Elena saw a large number of liquor bottles, most of them empty. She saw one or two that looked like they hadn't even been opened, however. Tyler was still talking. "It looks like somebody had a party out here. And they have expensive taste in liquor."

Caroline had joined them now. "No, that was probably just Damon," the blond vampire said casually. "He's kind of an alcoholic." Elena glared at her. "Well, he is," Caroline retorted defensively.

Elena bit back her response. She was just upset, and taking it out on Caroline – her only real ally right now, since Ric was out of town – wouldn't help anything. "Damon wouldn't just take off into the woods," she said slowly. "What was he doing out here?"

"Getting wasted, obviously," Caroline responded brightly. She shot Elena a significant look that was clearly meant to convey that they both knew why. "But you're right – he is definitely not the type to get in touch with his inner Grizzly Man. I mean, Damon is all about the designer clothes and the expensive alcohol and the fancy cars." She gestured at the bottles and the Camaro. "And he is so not a fan of animal blood. If he were going to disappear, he'd be in a bar or a club somewhere."

"So something happened to him," Elena said thoughtfully. She turned to Tyler. "You didn't . . . find any bodies or anything?" She knew both of her friends could hear the fear in her voice.

"No, nothing like that," Tyler said reassuringly.

"I don't smell anything either," Caroline added, scanning the clearing around them. "I mean, nothing out of the ordinary for the woods, that is."

Tyler had moved slowly away from them, and he pointed at something on the ground. "I'm no expert, but this could be another set of tire tracks," he said hesitantly.

Elena suddenly had a thought, and she shivered despite the sunny day. She turned to Caroline, afraid of the direction her thoughts were taking. "You remember the people who kidnapped Damon, Jeremy, and I before? What if they've come back?"

•••••

Stefan dragged himself awake, fighting the vervain in his system. He lay on the dirt floor of an unfamiliar cell, chained at both the wrists and ankles. After a few minutes of gathering his strength, he forced his way to a sitting position. His vampire vision easily penetrated the dim light of the cell. He saw another body lying across the cell from him, also in chains.

"Damon?" There was no response, not even the slightest motion, and Stefan felt sick as he shifted to get a better view of his brother. Damon looked terrible. His skin was gray, and Stefan could see the wrinkles that represented the early stages of dessication.

Stefan closed his eyes in horror and guilt, unable to look at his brother's dying body any longer. Elena had been right that Damon was in trouble, and Stefan had been too wrapped up in his own problems to even bother to look for his brother. He was well aware that, for all Damon's flaws, Damon had come for him almost immediately when the tomb vampires had taken him, and Stefan knew that he had let his brother down yet again.

Stefan opened his eyes as he heard footsteps. A strange man entered the cell. He glanced at Stefan before heading toward Damon's body. Stefan saw that he had a syringe. "What are you doing to him?" he asked, fighting to move against the lingering effects of the vervain and having little success. "What are you giving him?"

The man's voice was cold as he answered. "We give it a dose of vervain every few hours on schedule. Keeps it from waking up."

Stefan felt his stomach tie in a knot. "You don't have to do that anymore. He's past . . ." He stopped, not sure what he was going to say. "Please, he's not going to wake up," he begged. Only blood would help Damon now; his brother was too far gone to wake up on his own. "You're just torturing him now."

The man shrugged. "I just follow orders. Besides, this vampire killed a few of my friends the last time it escaped. Can't be too careful."

So that was where they were, Stefan thought, wishing he could think of a way to put that knowledge to use. He wondered if the man's friends had been killed by Damon or by himself when he had lost control while on human blood and trying to rescue Elena. That day had gone about as horribly wrong as it could go, and this one seemed to be following in its footsteps.

The man stood up from Damon's prone form, approaching Stefan cautiously. "Your turn to join him," he said, taking another syringe of vervain from his pocket.

Stefan still couldn't move very well, so his only option was to try to reason with the man. "Wait, why are you doing this?"

The man shrugged. "I think it should be pretty obvious. You're a vampire. You hunt and kill people."

"Please, I don't kill people. I don't drink human blood."

"Sure you don't. You're a vegetarian vampire. Yeah, right." The man stuck the syringe into Stefan without the slightest hesitation. "Good night, vampire."


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: **_This chapter gave me some problems, but I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. In case anyone is wondering, I am going with what seems to be canon on the show that these vampires do have beating hearts and breathe (based largely on Katherine's description of dessication to Stefan in the tomb), which of course also explains why it's so easy for everyone to mistake Katherine for Elena. I'm also assuming here that, given how forthcoming Stefan and Damon generally are (not!), there's a lot Caroline still doesn't know about being a vampire. Hope you enjoy it - and love it or hate it, I would be thrilled to receive a review! (I'm sorry that I don't have time to respond personally to all reviews, but I will respond when I can and I read and very much appreciate every review, of course.)_

**Chapter 21**

Elena frowned at her phone. Now Stefan was missing, too. It could not possibly be a good sign that he wasn't picking up his phone and wasn't at the house. She decided that she wasn't going to wait any longer to take action, especially now that she had a theory about where Damon, and now Stefan, might have been taken.

"Caroline," she said. "Call Bonnie and see if you can convince her to help us. Tell her to meet us at the Salvatore house, that way we'll be there if Stefan turns up."

Elena dialed Jeremy's number. She had been unconscious when they had left the building in the woods where their kidnappers had held them, but her brother had been awake and she was counting on him to remember where it was.

•••••

Elena parked her car in the woods a short distance from the building that was their destination. She heard Caroline's car pull up behind her; they had brought two cars in a fit of optimism, hoping to find both Damon and Stefan. They had made a couple of wrong turns finding the place, and she would give Jeremy a hard time about his sense of direction later, but finally they were here.

Caroline was out of her car almost instantly. The blond vampire looked incredibly excited. "I'll go scout the place," she announced.

"Be careful," Elena warned her. "Remember these people are vampire hunters, so don't let them see you. You can expect any guns to have wooden bullets."

"I'll be a ninja." Caroline grinned, waved, and sped off.

Elena waited impatiently with Jeremy and Bonnie.

"Let's go over the plan again," Bonnie said quietly. "No deaths, remember."

"No deaths," Elena agreed. "We disable rather than kill. We just have to make sure that Caroline doesn't get carried away. But Bonnie, if something does happen, just remember that it's Caroline, and she can't help that she's a vampire now."

"I know," Bonnie said darkly. "Believe me, I've thought about it enough."

"I think the door we came out through was on the far side of the building, right Jeremy?" Jeremy nodded, and Elena went on. "And the cells were downstairs, with just one room upstairs that we passed. So we go in there first."

Caroline was back already. "No guards outside," she reported. "I counted four, maybe five heartbeats inside near our target door. One is fainter than the others. I think it's farther away, could be the basement you were talking about. And I wasn't sure if I was hearing a fifth one or not."

"Okay, sounds like we're all clear then," Elena said. "Let's go." She could feel her own heart beating out of her chest. For all the excitement she had lived through in the previous year, she had almost always had at least one of the Salvatore brothers by her side. She just hoped she was right that they were inside.

Caroline sped across the open space in front of them to plaster herself against the side of the building, and the other three followed her at a human pace. When they had all reached the wall, they crept around the building toward the door.

When they reached the door, Caroline whispered. "It was locked, but I already broke the lock. No one inside heard anything."

Elena nodded, and Caroline opened the door. "Be careful, Car," she whispered in a voice that she hoped only her friend's vampire hearing could pick up. "Remember, don't kill anyone. Just knock them out for us, okay."

Caroline nodded. She slipped inside, followed by first Bonnie, then Elena, and finally Jeremy guarding the rear.

When they reached the door to the upstairs room that Elena thought of as the guardroom, Caroline again burst through the door. She hit the first man that turned around with a vicious punch that sent him flying into a wall. Bonnie flung a second man into a wall with her magic, holding him immobile there, and Caroline was already on the third man, knocking him unconscious. The blond vampire jumped away from the body almost immediately, and Elena saw that her friend's fangs had come out. She could hear Caroline whispering to herself to "breathe" as she tried to get her bloodlust under control.

"Nice," Jeremy said as he looked around the room. "You girls are good." He pulled some rags and rope out of a backpack. They had planned to tie up and gag the men.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing, Jeremy?" Elena asked as her brother started to tie up one of the men that Caroline had knocked unconscious.

"Come on, Elena. I was a boy scout for eight years," Jeremy answered with a grin. "I think I remember how to tie a good knot."

•••••

A few minutes later Elena and a now-calm Caroline crept down the stairs toward the cells that Elena remembered being held in before. So far the rescue effort was going remarkably smoothly. They had left Jeremy and Bonnie guarding the upstairs door and the three men they had subdued. Bonnie had found a spell that would let her keep the outside door locked so that they wouldn't have any surprise visitors.

As she descended into the basement, Elena couldn't help but remember Damon slumped on those stairs, in need of her help just to stand. She shuddered as she saw a dark stain on the wall where he had killed a man. She hadn't liked seeing him kill humans to get them out of that basement, and she knew that Damon had expected her to condemn him for it, perhaps even leave him behind. But she couldn't condemn him. She knew it was his nature to kill as a vampire, and she had known just how far he had been pushed that day. But the knowledge of the humanity that Damon had almost lost as a killer was all the more reason to make sure that Caroline never had to access that part of her, Elena thought.

Caroline opened the door at the bottom of the stairs silently, and Elena was surprised at the dread that she felt at seeing those cells again. The many hours she had spent in there, helplessly watching Damon suffer, had been some of the worst of her life.

As they entered the room, Elena quickly saw that the cell that she and Jeremy had been kept in was empty. She saw a figure on the floor in the other cell, however. "Stefan!" she cried softly as a wave of relief washed over her. She had found Stefan at least, and she saw him stir at the sound of her voice.

Elena fumbled with the keys that they had taken from the guard upstairs, and to her surprise, the second one opened the door.

"Elena. . . " Stefan whispered, and there was something about the tone of his voice that killed Elena's elation at finding him. He gestured weakly across the dark cell, and Elena looked in the direction of his movement.

She was pretty sure that her heart stopped for a moment at the sight. She had been too late. It was Damon, and he looked nothing less than dead. "No, no, no, no," Elena knew she sounded hysterical as she repeated the only word that came to mind besides his name. She crossed the cell on shaking legs, sinking to her knees beside his body. The tears pouring from her eyes weren't quite enough to blind her from the way his beautiful porcelain skin was now gray and wrinkled, his strong body shrunken into the corpse that he had always joked about being. She knew without Caroline saying a word that his heart was no longer beating.

Elena reached out a tentative hand, but she pulled it back. She wasn't sure she wanted to touch him like this. She wanted to remember Damon alive, with his crooked, fuck-me smile and crazy intense blue eyes and bitingly sarcastic wit. She wanted to remember the way he had touched her on the one perfect night they had had together before she screwed everything up and lost _him_ forever. She closed her eyes, needing to block out the image of him lying dead in front of her.

It was Caroline's voice, coming from over her shoulder, that caused Elena to snap her eyes open again. "Hey, he hasn't been staked, has he? Why does he look like that?"

Elena tried to wipe enough tears from her eyes to see clearly. She felt a surge of hope. Damon's chest looked untouched. "You're right, Car – there's no stake! That means we can bring him back, right?" She remembered the tomb vampires, who had spent 145 years in this kind of vampire mummy state only to wake up when given blood. "All he needs is blood. Right, Stefan?" She turned to Stefan, seeking confirmation.

"Stefan, what happened to Damon?" Caroline asked, still confused. "Don't tell me we can turn into creepy mummies, because that is _not_ what I signed up for."

"He's been starved, Caroline," Stefan answered slowly. "He hasn't had any blood for days. That's what happens to vampires if they don't feed."

"In that case, I am _never_ going on a diet as a vampire. Good thing we can't really gain weight. Can we?"

Elena interrupted her friend. "We have blood in the car. Car, can you go get it?" She actually had Caroline to thank for that foresight. It had been the blond vampire who had pointed out that it might be a good idea to bring a cooler of blood on the rescue mission. As it turned out, Caroline's planning skills extended beyond parties, school dances, and fundraisers.

As Caroline sped out of the room, Elena moved to unlock the chains holding Stefan's wrists and ankles. "He will be okay, won't he?" she asked quietly.

"He should be," Stefan said slowly. He moved his wrists in relief at the absence of the metal shackles. "Elena, I'm so sorry I didn't listen to you. I . . . I should have trusted your instincts." He shook his head bitterly. "And Damon paid the price for my mistake. Again."

"It's okay, Stefan," Elena said, even though it wasn't really. At least not until she had Damon back. "I didn't trust my instincts either. We'll get him back."

They both fell silent then. After a moment, Elena spoke again. "Do you know who is behind this, Stefan?"

He shook his head. "Isobel took me down, but that's all I know. Damon . . . he hasn't been conscious since I woke up, so I don't know how they captured him."

"Isobel?" Elena asked in surprise. "She's back in town?"

Before Stefan could answer, they both felt a gust of wind and Caroline was back in the room. "One cooler of blood," she announced cheerily. She pulled out a bottle and handed it to Stefan. "Bunny blood for you, and human for Damon." She handed a blood bag to Elena. "Do you want to do the honors?"

Then another voice spoke. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Isobel said from behind them.

**A/N: **_Little preview - next chapter is going to be intense! And it shouldn't take me as long to post it, either._


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: **_This is the longest chapter I've done yet. Hope you like it! (Clearly I'll have to kill off Isobel in this story to match the show, but not this chapter. Also, so nice to have another gratuitous shirtless Damon scene last night. There can never be enough of those. The new bathroom set is the best set ever!_)

**Disclaimer: **_I still don't own anything, except this little story._

**Chapter 22**

Elena stared at her birth mother. "How did you get in here?" she asked.

Isobel shrugged. "Never leave a human, even a witch, to guard against a vampire. I followed Blondie here in."

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?" Caroline chimed in.

Stefan was focused on Isobel. "If that was a threat, you might want to rethink it." His voice was cold, and Elena could see the predator that Stefan almost always kept deeply buried. She suppressed a shiver.

Isobel shrugged. "No threat. I'm just saying you might not want to go through with your plan to revive Damon."

"Why not?" Elena asked suspiciously.

Isobel shrugged. "In a nutshell, there's no more blood left in his system, but his body is full of vervain." She paused. "Do you know what that means, Stefan?"

Elena looked back and forth between Isobel and Stefan, thoroughly confused. Stefan was shaking his head in denial, and Elena thought she saw fear in his eyes.

Isobel continued. "Right now he can't feel anything. But if you wake him up, he will feel all of the vervain that has accumulated in his system. It was a technique used in the Middle Ages to torture the worst vampires, the ones for whom a final death wasn't seen as enough punishment." Her voice was oddly expressionless. "Are you sure you want to put Damon through that? Do you even think that he would survive?"

Elena felt both anger and fear battling in her. She glared at Isobel. "How do you know all of this?" She turned toward Stefan when Isobel just shrugged. "Do you believe this?"

Stefan had a blank look in his eyes now. "They were giving him vervain, even when he was already gone," he said tonelessly.

"Are you saying that we shouldn't try to wake him up, Stefan? We can't just let him die." Elena felt tears in her eyes, and she suppressed them ruthlessly. "That's not an option."

Isobel shrugged again. "The kindest thing to do would be to stake him and put an end to it all. As to how I know, Marcella tested it as one of her . . . experiments. I saw the outcome, and it wasn't pretty."

"No," Elena repeated stubbornly. "It's not an option. There has to be a way."

"Elena," Stefan began, and she could see the uncertainty on his face.

Elena turned to Stefan desperately. "It's Damon, Stefan. He's your brother, and I . . . I can't lose him. If there's a chance, we have to try." She picked up the keys again and moved toward Damon to unlock the shackles binding him. "I have to try it," she repeated.

She looked up at Isobel stubbornly, and the older woman shrugged her shoulders. "If you insist on doing this, I'd leave him chained up," she said. Her voice was cold and unfeeling, although Elena thought she might have seen some emotion in Isobel's eyes. "It will limit the amount of damage he can do. Marcella's . . . test subject tore his own heart out to stop the pain." And with those words Isobel was gone from the room.

•••••

Stefan watched as Elena picked up the blood bag again and knelt beside Damon's body. He knew that she would go through with it. He couldn't even bring himself to try to talk her out of it, even though he was terrifyingly aware that Isobel had probably told them the truth. Stefan knew he would have made the same decision and tried to bring Damon back. Hell, he had done something very similar when he forced Damon to turn, to become a monster, because he couldn't face eternity without his brother. Ironically, he thought, Damon was the one who was strong enough to let go of someone he loved rather than cause them pain. Stefan knew neither he nor Elena had that kind of strength. And Stefan was terrified of what might happen - because he wasn't sure how much more his brother could take.

So Stefan stood there and watched as Elena poured the first blood bag into Damon's mouth. At first, nothing happened. Then he could see his brother's body begin to restore itself, the skin filling back out and becoming less gray. He thought he heard a low moan of pain from Damon, although he doubted Elena's human ears would have picked it up. But his brother's body hadn't moved, and he began to hope that maybe Isobel had lied. Maybe the vervain that Stefan had seen injected into Damon had been a one-time thing, or maybe the stories about vervain poisoning hundreds of years ago were just that, stories. Maybe his brother would wake up just fine, and as Damon might say sarcastically, all would be right with the world.

Elena gave Damon a second bag of blood, and after a few moments, his brother almost looked like himself again. His eyes didn't open, however, and now Stefan definitely heard a groan come from his brother. He watched helplessly as Damon thrashed weakly against the chains binding him, clearly in pain.

"Stefan?" Elena was looking at him pleadingly. "What do we do?"

Stefan didn't have any answers for her, so he didn't say anything. Finally, Damon stopped moving and just lay there, still unconscious.

"Should I give him more blood, Stefan?"

Stefan hesitated, but finally he nodded. "We've come this far," he said unconvincingly.

Elena nodded and slowly pulled another blood bag from the cooler. Damon's reaction to this one was much faster, and Stefan sped forward to pull Elena away as his brother began to writhe crazily. Damon's body jerked against the chains, and Stefan smelled and then saw blood begin to drop from Damon's wrist as the shackles cut into his brother's flesh. Damon only jerked harder, and Stefan felt Elena stiffen against him as Damon dislocated his own shoulder in his struggles. He screamed, and Stefan closed his eyes at the agony in his brother's voice.

He heard footsteps pounding down the stairs, and a moment later, Jeremy burst through the door. "What's going on down here?" he asked, staring at Damon as the vampire continued to convulse and scream in pain.

Caroline was the one who answered. "We're trying to wake Damon up. It's not going very well."

"Obviously," Jeremy said dryly. Stefan could hear the worry in the kid's voice, however. Sometimes he wondered how Damon got these people to care about him. He had killed Jeremy, after all, and the kid had only seemed to hold it against him for a few days. "Anything I can do? Or Bonnie?'

Now Elena answered. "I don't think so, Jer, but can you tell Bonnie what's going on just in case?"

"Sure. What's wrong with him?" Jeremy looked back and forth between the various people in the room until Stefan answered.

"Vervain poisoning. They starved him and kept giving him vervain, so us giving him blood to wake him up is causing him to feel all the vervain in his system."

"Is he going to be okay?"

Trust Jeremy to get to the point, Stefan thought. He was tired of pretending, so he answered truthfully. "I have no idea."

Jeremy nodded and headed back up the stairs slowly, and the three of them watched as Damon's struggles lessened as the vampire used up the strength he had gotten from the blood. Finally, he lay still again, and Stefan left Elena's side and went to his brother. He carefully moved Damon's arm from the unnatural position it had ended up in, just in case Damon's body had the strength to heal. His brother was bleeding from both ankles and wrists, and Stefan was starting to wonder about the wisdom of keeping him chained. But it was true that there was no telling what Damon might do if he wasn't restrained. He had yet to show any signs of consciousness.

"Can't we just wait for the vervain to pass out of his system?" Caroline asked suddenly. "I mean, do we have to keep giving him more blood? It doesn't seem to be helping."

Stefan shook his head. "Stopping wouldn't help either. He may seem calmer right now, but he's still in just as much pain as ever. He just doesn't have the strength to move anymore. But I don't think the vervain will leave his body quickly enough. If we stop giving him blood, he'll just go back into dessication. At least with blood, his body can try to repair itself against the vervain."

"What have we done?" Elena whispered in horror.

The tone of her voice reminded Stefan that he needed to be the strong one right now. What he wouldn't give for Damon's ability to crack a joke at the most inappropriate times. "We didn't have a choice," he said firmly. He knew there was still a choice, and he had a feeling that if their positions were reversed, Damon would stake him to end his pain and then walk away to somehow live with the consequences. But Stefan knew he couldn't do that. He was pretty sure that he had already lost Elena to his brother, but he would never be able to face her if he didn't try everything to get Damon back.

Stefan took another blood bag from the cooler. Damon almost inhaled the blood, which Stefan hoped was a positive sign, but as soon as the nourishment was in Damon's body, he started to struggle even more wildly than before. Stefan could only watch and listen to his brother's screams, as Damon quickly dislocated both shoulders. Damon's eyes opened for a second, only to roll back in his head, and Stefan heard a snapping sound as Damon broke his own wrist, and behind him, he could hear Elena turn away with a sobbing sound. The floor of the cell was slick with the blood from Damon's wounds as he continued to slice his skin with the metal shackles. The convulsions seemed to go on and on as Stefan forced himself to watch his brother's agony, but finally, Damon began to still. He lay there, his body twisted and broken by his own vampire strength and his eyes again firmly closed.

Stefan took a step forward as Damon started to shake uncontrollably. Once again, he moved Damon's arms, trying to put his brother's broken body back in a natural position. Stefan could see that Damon's black hair was soaking wet, and sweat had soaked through his shirt as well, making it cling to his body. He touched the side of Damon's face gently, wondering if his brother could even feel his touch or sense his presence. He hoped Damon knew he wasn't alone.

Stefan felt Elena creep forward beside him. "It's going to be okay, Damon," she whispered as she too reached out tentatively to touch the unconscious vampire. Stefan let her stay there, fairly certain that Damon didn't have the strength to lash out.

After a few minutes, Stefan gestured for Elena to step back as he picked up another blood bag. There was only one more after this one, and Stefan wondered what they should do if Damon didn't improve soon. Once again, Damon drank the blood quickly, and this time Stefan thought the convulsions had lessened a bit. Damon had screamed his throat raw, which made him quieter but was hardly encouraging, but Stefan was sure that Damon's writhing began to slow much sooner this time. For a few minutes, his brother lay there, breathing raggedly and shaking again, before his body seemed to relax.

"Damon?" Stefan approached his brother slowly, hoping this time he might wake up. There was no response, but Stefan was almost certain that the wounds on Damon's wrists and ankles were healing now. That was a good sign if his body could spare the energy to heal its surface wounds.

Feeling a surge of optimism, Stefan took the last blood bag from the cooler and brought it to his brother's lips. Damon drank, and this time – finally – his body remained still as it took in the blood. Stefan met Elena's hopeful eyes. "Is it over?" she asked quietly.

Stefan didn't answer as he shook Damon's shoulder gently. "Wake up, Damon," he said. There was no response.

Elena joined him, kneeling at Damon's side. "Please, Damon. Can you hear me? Please wake up."

But nothing seemed to reach Damon, and Stefan finally picked up the keys to unlock the chains binding his brother. "I guess we should just take him home. Maybe that will help," he said quietly. "Maybe he just needs more time." He didn't know what else to do. Damon had to wake up.

•••••

The pain was too much. Damon had passed through the pain of vervain, the excruciating agony of dessication, and now something was bringing him back to a body suffering through an agony beyond any he could have ever imagined. Poison suffused every inch of his body, every artery and vein and muscle and tissue, and he knew that he writhed against it because he could feel every rip as his body's convulsions snapped his own wrist, dislocated his shoulders, and sliced the skin of his wrists and ankles to the bone against the shackles that held him. Most of all, he tried to get free of the pain that consumed him, and no amount of struggling seemed to help.

Desperate to escape, Damon hid in an isolated corner of his mind, frantic to block out everything that his body was going through. And the physical pain finally – after what seemed an eternity – dropped off until it was only the pain of healing as his cursed flesh put itself back together, undoing the damage that his superhuman strength had caused.

But then the emotional pain hit him. Then he remembered his life and his failures, his losses, the pain of unrequited love, and he stayed in that corner of his mind. He made himself as small as possible, because he didn't want to go back to that life, to the vampire – the person – that he was. He didn't want to feel those emotions again. He wanted it all to be over, but he was damned to live forever.

•••••

Elena watched as Stefan placed Damon's unconscious body gently on the bed and slowly took off his brother's shoes. Feeling helpless, she went into Damon's adjacent bathroom and soaked a towel to clean up the dried blood from his wrists and ankles. Damon was a mess, she thought as she came back into the room, and one little towel wasn't going to help much. A mix of blood, dirt, and sweat covered his entire body, and Elena felt a wave of despair at the sight of him lying there.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Caroline buzzed into the room. She held up a glass of blood. "Here. I thought he might like it heated and in a glass this time," she said. Trust Caroline to always sound cheerful, Elena thought. Of course, the blond vampire didn't even like Damon, but Elena had to admit that Caroline had been awfully helpful through this whole day. She would have to remember to properly thank her friend.

"Thanks, Caroline," Stefan said as he took the glass from her. He held it to Damon's lips.

Elena watched as Damon's eyes finally opened, and she saw the familiar blue that she had missed so much. She started to say his name with excitement, but the words died on her lips. There was something wrong. His eyes were glassy and utterly blank, with no recognition, no intensity, no humor – no sign of _Damon_ behind the gaze.

As Elena watched, he slowly raised a hand to take the glass of blood from Stefan and drank it without a word. Then he sank back on the bed, and his eyes closed again.

Elena glanced at Stefan and saw that he looked as stricken as she felt. Damon had woken up, but it didn't look like he was even present in his own body. _What have we done?_ Elena thought in horror.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

Damon Salvatore was broken. Elena had thought that she seen him at his lowest, but that had been nothing compared to this. He just lay there in his bedroom. He drank blood when someone brought it to him, but he said nothing, barely moved. And his eyes – his stunning eyes that had always been so expressive, had always bared his soul, at least to her – were empty, vacant. There was nothing in them, no emotion. No fire. And Damon was all fire and energy, or at least he had been. Now, there was nothing there.

Stefan and Bonnie had tried to convince her that at least it was a good thing that Damon didn't seem to have any aggression in him right now – at least they didn't have a mindless, psychotic vampire on their hands. But Elena wasn't even sure about that, although she felt guilty even thinking it. She would almost have rather faced the Damon she had first met, the vampire she had called a self-serving psychopath, because she had been able to see glimpses of humanity in him even then. He had still been Damon. This lack of life that she was seeing now scared her more than the vampire in Damon ever had.

Elena wondered if Stefan had known this could happen, if that was why he had seemed to hesitate about trying to save Damon. She had known that Damon was unstable, fragile even, but somehow she had also thought that he was strong enough to survive anything. Now she feared that she had been horribly wrong.

She had tried everything over the past week to reach him. Anything to draw out an angry outburst or an inappropriate flirtation or even a simple sarcastic comment. One day, she had brought him animal blood instead of human. He drank it without a word or even really an expression. Another day she had put on her tiniest miniskirt, one she hadn't worn in years, and a corset top from an old Halloween costume. She had been sure that Damon wouldn't be able to resist a comment about how sexy – or ridiculous – she looked, sure that he would flirt with her. But he hadn't said a word, hadn't reacted at all that she could see.

Caroline had found her sobbing in one of the many parlors of the Boarding House that day, since Elena had made sure to try that particular scheme when she knew Stefan wouldn't be around. She remembered herself crying, "I can't reach him, Caroline. I can't find him."

And Caroline had tried to comfort her. "He'll find his way back. Give him time." Elena had wanted to believe it, but she was losing hope.

Elena opened the door to Damon's bedroom. He was lying curled on his side on the bed, apparently asleep. He was wearing a black t-shirt and sweatpants – the same clothes he had been wearing all week since Stefan had somehow gotten him cleaned up the first night they had brought him back.

Silently, Elena set down the glass of blood that she had brought him. She lay down beside him on the huge bed, facing him. His face was so beautiful, and his features looked relaxed and peaceful with his eyes closed. She had never noticed how long his eyelashes were before. Elena reached out and put her hand over his where it lay on the bed. "Where are you, Damon?" she whispered. "Come back to me." She felt a tear rolling down her cheek, and she moved her hand to wipe it away.

Damon's eyes opened when her hand moved off his, and Elena felt hope surge through her. But no, his eyes were still blank. She tried anyway. "Hey," she said quietly. She tried for a light, teasing tone. "You know, you're brooding worse than Stefan ever has." She thought maybe, just maybe, something flashed in his eyes at that.

She took his hand again, stroking it gently. "Damon, talk to me. Say something, anything." She was getting angry now. "Damn it, Damon, I need you. I . . . I think I love you."

She both felt and saw as a shudder passed through him. Then his eyes focused on hers and there was something there. It was a pain so intense that Elena would have looked away if she hadn't been so desperate for any spark of life in Damon. She almost couldn't hold his gaze as it was.

"Why did you bring me back? Why couldn't you just let me go?" His voice was low and rough with disuse, and it cracked on the words.

Elena watched the tears forming in his eyes. She felt like she had been struck mute, terrified that if she said the wrong thing, she would lose him again. Then suddenly, tears were streaming down Damon's face, his whole body wracked by sobs. Elena had never seen such despair, even in herself and Jeremy when their parents had died. "Damon?" she whispered, uncertain what to do in the face of this sudden onslaught of emotion. And then she put her arms around him and just held him as he cried, her tears joining with his. Eventually, they fell asleep in each other's arms.

•••••

Elena woke up disoriented, trying to figure out where she was. She was lying on a very large, comfortable bed – Damon's room, she was in Damon's room. On Damon's bed. _Where is Damon?_ she thought, fear rising in her.

But before she had even sat up, she saw him come out of the bathroom. He was wearing only one of his many pairs of low-rise, dark wash jeans, and she found herself staring at the perfection of his body. He looked unscathed, physically at least, by everything that had happened.

"Damon?" Elena sat up. "Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

Damon turned toward her. "Are you checking me out, Elena?" He grinned at her, but his smile didn't reach his eyes, and he didn't do the eye-thing.

Elena decided the only thing to do was to play along. It was never easy to get Damon to talk about his feelings, and she was just glad to have him back. "Maybe," she answered, dragging the word out.

"Well, what do you think? Dashing? Gorgeous? Irresistible?" His eyes met hers again, still with a haunted edge to his expression, and she knew he was thinking back to another time.

Elena remembered how she had answered him before. _Wrecked_, she had said, and she knew that it applied now even more than it had then. But that wasn't what she said this time. "Yes, all three of those." She gave him an answering grin and got up off the bed to go to him.

Elena hesitated for a moment, meeting his eyes. Then she threw her arms around him. "I missed you so much. I'm so sorry, Damon. I'm so sorry." She wasn't even sure what exactly she was apologizing for.

"Elena," his voice broke and he stopped. For a long moment Elena just clutched him, feeling the stiffness in his body. Then slowly Damon closed his arms around her and his body relaxed enough to mold to hers. Elena buried her head in his shoulder, feeling a surge of hope that she hadn't lost him. She had missed the feeling of his arms, the sparks like electricity that surged through her body whenever he touched her, the hard muscles of his body and the coiled power that she could feel within him. He might be wrecked, but she needed him. Surely they could get through anything together.

They stood like that for several minutes, Elena clutching Damon as tightly as she could, before he gently disengaged her arms. "You know," he said, looking down at her. "You need a shower almost as much as I did." He gave her his signature smirk, and this time, to her delight, she saw a matching sparkle in his eyes.

Elena laughed and hit him, even as she felt herself blinking back tears.

**A/N: **_I know it's a little cheesy and generic to have Damon wake up when Elena says she loves him, but we all know he's a romantic sap at heart so it seemed to work for the character. And I couldn't come up with anything more clever. I also had a brief thought about changing (or delaying) my entire plan for this story and waking Damon up as crazy, evil vampire Damon, but I decided that would have derailed the story too much so I stuck with my original plan. Could have been fun, though ;)_


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: **_I would have posted this yesterday, but the site was wonky. So here it is. Will things finally start looking up for Damon?  
_

**Disclaimer: **_Still not mine.__  
_

**Chapter 24**

_Damon could feel a dirt floor under him and sense stone walls on all sides. Steel bound his wrists and ankles, and he started struggling frantically, uselessly, panic running through him. He was back in that cell again. Then the pain hit, and he thrashed desperately but there was no escaping it. No amount of strength would help him. His skin was drying out and shriveling up, all life draining from his body. He could no longer see or feel anything, other than the steel cutting into him – and the pain. He kept fighting even as he grew weaker and weaker, but there was no release. The pain was his whole world, and it went on and on. Finally, when he couldn't take it anymore, he screamed, although he knew no one would hear him. _

_Then vaguely, as if through a fog, he could hear someone calling his name._

"Damon! Damon, wake up!" The voice dragged him back to wakefulness, and he felt someone trying to hold him down as his body thrashed wildly. It was Stefan.

"I'm awake," Damon murmured, trying to force his muscles to relax. His breathing was ragged, and he stared up at the familiar ceiling of his room, searching for something to anchor him to reality.

Stefan released his shoulders slowly, taking a step back. "Are you okay?" he asked. His voice and eyes were filled with concern.

That kind of pity was the last thing Damon wanted from his brother. "I'm fine," he snapped. He didn't want to show his brother any signs of weakness, but he knew that Stefan would hear that his heart was still racing. He tried desperately to stop his body's involuntary shaking as the nightmare refused to let him go. "Just go away, okay?"

"Okay." Stefan took another step away from the bed. He was silent for a moment. "Damon, you can talk to me, you know. I'm your brother and I care about you."

Damon refused to meet his brother's eyes. "I don't need a therapist, Stefan. Just go." He listened to Stefan's footsteps as his brother slowly turned and left, shutting the door behind him.

Only then did Damon roll over onto his side, curling into a fetal position. He hadn't been able to stop himself from shaking, and it worsened now as he relaxed slightly. Damn it, vampires didn't get nightmares; they caused nightmares. He was a disgrace to his species, he thought ruefully. He couldn't believe that a bad dream had shaken him this badly, emotionally and physically, but it had felt so fucking real. Like he had been right back in that cell . . . He cut off that line of thought as quickly as he could, needing to banish the memory, not relive it again.

After a few minutes, Damon finally managed to get his breathing and his body under control. He had torn the sheets on his bed, which weren't cheap, and his pillows were scattered around the room, he noticed. He was pretty sure that the bed itself had actually moved a few feet, and given what it weighed that told him something. He had spared no expense in its construction, designing it to stand up to the roughest of vampire activity – although nightmares were not exactly what he had had in mind.

Damon sighed, sitting up and running his fingers through his hair. Elena and Stefan had filled him in on the previous week's events in a conversation that had been far too full of worried looks and expressions of concern for Damon's taste. Damon didn't consciously remember anything after his talk with John Gilbert in that cell – although apparently it was all still there in his head, he thought grimly. In all honesty, it _was_ pretty fucking disturbing that he had spent a week lying around like a zombie with no awareness of anything. And of course, since he was a vampire, his body was perfectly fine and it was his mind that was fucked up. _Nothing new there. I should be used to being fucked up by now_, Damon reminded himself with disgust.

One thing he wasn't surprised about was that it was Elena who had eventually managed to reach him. She had brought him back to his body, not unlike how she had dragged him back to what was left of his humanity. It told Damon that she cared about him, but it didn't really answer the question of how much. He could think of a half-dozen people that he was sure she would fight for the same way, after all.

Damon got up slowly, not entirely certain if his legs would hold him and pleased when they did. He decided on a shower first, since it was closer than alcohol. One thing he knew was that he would not be sleeping again for a while. Or maybe ever.

•••••

Stefan left Damon's room reluctantly. He hadn't missed the way his brother couldn't stop shaking from that nightmare, and it reminded him disturbingly of pulling Damon back from the vervain poisoning. However, Stefan knew Damon well enough to suspect that forcing him to talk would be counterproductive at best. This latest development was just as worrisome as the strange mental-coma state that Damon had been in for the previous week, Stefan thought. He knew there was a reason that he hadn't trusted Elena's assertion that Damon was just fine now that he was aware again. There was no way that anyone, even Damon, would be fine after what he had been through.

Too bad his brother probably wouldn't agree with him, Stefan thought. Damon was always too fucking hard on himself – that was one characteristic that they had in common, even if they expressed it in different ways. Stefan was worried about his brother right now, and he was worried about what Damon might do if he lost control of himself. Damon usually teetered on the edge of sanity anyway, and something like this could very easily push him over. The problem was that Stefan couldn't really think of anything he could do to help.

•••••

Damon was more than a little drunk when his phone rang the next morning. He hesitated a moment, but he finally answered on the third ring. "Hello, Elena." He was happy that he hadn't slurred the words too much. If he was lucky, Elena wouldn't even notice that he was plastered.

"Good morning, Damon." Her voice sounded a bit weird to Damon, oddly formal, and his instincts suddenly started screaming at him. He knew what he was hearing in her voice; he had heard it enough times over the decades. Elena sounded scared.

At least the answering fear that realization sparked in him was quickly sobering him up, Damon thought, before wondering why he, of all people, was looking for the bright side. "Elena, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, Damon." She went silent for a moment, while Damon's heart nearly stopped. Not that it would matter since he was already dead. "It's just . . . I . . . Well, Jenna is still out of town with Ric, and I was wondering if you wanted to come over tonight. We could make dinner and watch a movie or something."

Damon almost laughed, catching himself just in time. She was terrified because she was asking him out on a date? "Are you asking me out, Elena?"

She stuttered a little. "Yes."

"How progressive of you. I like a woman who knows what she wants." He hesitated, however. He really, really should make an excuse and push her away, for her own good. He had just spent the night tearing up his room during a fucking nightmare and then drinking himself into a stupor to forget that nightmare. He had no business being anywhere near Elena right now. He would only end up hurting her. On the other hand, everything in him that wasn't his rational mind told him to say yes, and Damon had never been exactly good at resisting temptation. This was Elena after all, who against all odds actually seemed to want to give him a chance.

Damon gave in and turned on his most seductive voice, which was damned easy with alcohol still coursing through his system. "How can I say no to a woman as beautiful as you? What time do you want me?"

He grinned as he could almost hear her blush. "Uh, how about 7:00?"

"Am I cooking this dinner, by the way?"

Elena sounded much more relaxed as he switched to a more familiar bantering tone. "Well, it's that or take-out. I have no intention of scaring you away with my attempts at cooking."

Damon made a snap decision. "Make it 6:00, and I'll cook. I'll bring everything." Planning a meal and buying the food would give him something to do all day. It would make an excellent distraction, and he very much needed one. He had to get himself together before seeing Elena.


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: **_Sorry about the long delay in updating. Work caught up with me again, and then I had to travel to a conference. To make it up to you, this is a longish chapter with lots of Damon-Elena. As always, reviews are much appreciated!_

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own _The Vampire Diaries_, more's the pity.  
_

**Chapter 25**

After what Damon thought was a pretty exquisite dinner for only a few hours of planning, Elena grabbed his hand to tug him into the living room. "Want to watch a movie?"

He savored the feeling of her small hand holding his. "Sure. What are we watching?" So far this little date night was going quite well, if a bit too innocent for his tastes. He was playing along, however.

"A _little_ patience, please," Elena said teasingly. "You'll find out in a minute." Elena gestured for him to sit down on the couch, and Damon settled himself in a corner, watching Elena's backside appreciatively as she put in a DVD.

He was even more appreciative as Elena settled herself against him. "Is this comfortable?" she asked.

"More than comfortable," he said in one of his best sexy voices, nuzzling her hair as he put his arms around her.

"Movie, Damon," Elena said, giving him a light tap on his shoulder. She didn't sound very upset, however.

Once the movie started, however, Damon found himself actually drawn into watching it. Not that he would ever admit it, but he was touched that Elena had obviously put some thought into taking his mind off recent events. She had selected _Little Miss Sunshine_, truly one of the funniest movies of recent years in Damon's considered opinion, and even though both of them had seen it before, it wasn't long before they were laughing at the crazy antics of the dysfunctional family and dysfunctional world on the screen. Laughing with Elena while holding her in his arms was quite possibly the closest to true peace and happiness that Damon had gotten since he was a little boy, before his mother had died, he thought suddenly. _Other than sex, of course_, he had to remind himself.

For an hour and a half, Elena had actually managed to distract him from, well, everything, and Damon was grateful. But unfortunately the movie, and the moment, had to come to an end.

Elena switched off the T.V. and pulled slightly away from Damon, looking at him intently. He felt himself tense involuntarily at the look in her eyes. "Damon, can we talk about yesterday?" she asked.

Damon was up off the couch and across the room before his rational mind could kick in and remind him that probably wasn't the best reaction. "Not tonight, Elena," he said.

Of course, she had to push him. "It'll be better if you talk about it, Damon. And I want to understand."

Damon whirled on her. He knew his eyes were flashing crazily, but it was all he could do to keep himself somewhat under control. Damn it, he had almost gotten through the day, and she had just brought back every single emotion that he was trying desperately to suppress. And if he didn't keep those emotions suppressed, he would snap – and not even Damon knew what he would do then, but he knew it wouldn't be good by any definition of the word. "I can't" was all he said, hoping that she could see from his eyes and his body language that tonight of all nights she had to back off.

But she was Elena, and she never backed off. Under other circumstances, it was one of the things he loved about her. "You can tell me, Damon. Please don't shut me out."

He was pacing now, seeking a way to release some of the pent up energy in his body. He tried again. "I can't, Elena. I can't talk about it. Not yet." Then, being Damon, he made things worse. "And you can't understand, damn it. You have no fucking idea!"

But somehow those words seemed to show Elena just how on edge he was. She moved in front of him then, grabbing for and catching his hand. "Damon," she said soothingly. "It's okay. We don't have to do it tonight. We can wait until you're ready."

Damon jerked his hand away. He didn't want her sympathy. "I've got to get out of here," he said. His body was vibrating with the emotions that threatened to overwhelm the remnants of his self-control. He took a step toward his coat where it hung over a chair.

"Damon, don't do this. Don't run away from me," Elena pleaded. She played her trump card, then. "Please, think about what happened last time."

Damon stopped moving and buried his head in his hands. He was pretty sure that Isobel wasn't lurking outside to ambush him, and if she was, she was as good as dead. But he knew that on another level Elena was right; if he wanted to have any chance of making things work between them, he couldn't run away every time his emotions got too intense. The problem was that he was afraid that he couldn't control himself, and then he would hurt her. Again. Damon kept himself turned away from Elena and braced himself for the hug that he thought was coming, terrified that it would send him over the edge. He had broken down twice in the past day and a half, and he knew his control was even more shaky than usual. So far the only person he had hurt was himself, with that terrifying nightmare, and he wanted to keep it that way.

Once again, however, Elena seemed to sense how precarious Damon's emotional state was in that moment. She actually kept her distance. "Just come watch the next movie with me," she said. "We still have that second bottle of wine that you brought, too."

Damon froze for a long moment, trying to steady his breathing and his mind. If he left now, he would just have to find a distraction elsewhere, he knew, and neither his house nor the Grill sounded particularly appealing. He wasn't at all sure he could handle being alone with his thoughts. "Okay," he finally said shakily, turning back toward her.

•••••

Elena had been blindsided by Damon's reaction to what she had meant to be a simple question. She really did want to understand what he had felt the previous day, the unbelievable pain that she had seen in his eyes. And she hadn't been able to forget his words when he woke up, _Why did you bring me back? Why couldn't you just let me go?_ She felt like she needed Damon so much, had missed him so much, and it was eating at her that he might rather have died than be with her.

They had both been so relaxed at the end of _Little Miss Sunshine_ that it had felt like the perfect time to talk to him. But instead Damon had instantly freaked out, and it had seemed like Elena was only making it worse. It reminded her of when Rose had died, and she had done her best to comfort Damon only to be left with the feeling that she had somehow failed him completely. She couldn't let that happen again, so she had changed her tone and backed off.

And at least he hadn't left, she thought, even if she could still feel the tension suffusing his entire body even though he had nearly finished the wine in about half an hour. She had settled herself against him again and put on another comedy, but she could tell that this time Damon wasn't hearing a word of the movie. She stroked his arm tentatively, trying to get him to relax.

Elena had just wanted to bring him some peace after everything he had been through, and she had wanted to rekindle their relationship tonight. It had been going well until she had tried to get him to open up, and Elena knew she was going to have to continue to tread carefully with Damon. He was so different from her friends; with Bonnie or Caroline, she would have kept pushing until they had talked through everything. And even if Stefan could be evasive at times, he would eventually explain things to her and they could talk about any problems. With Damon, sometimes she felt like she understood him perfectly and at other times she was completely confused by his reactions.

She could finally feel him relaxing a bit under her touch, and she gathered her courage again. They had been flirting enough earlier that she knew he _had_ been receptive to getting physical, and he was Damon, after all. She just didn't know where his head was at now, and that scared her just a little. But she desperately wanted to reestablish the intimacy that had slipped through her fingers, so she turned to face him. She could see the distant, distracted look in his eyes, and she realized in terror that Damon was hardly even there with her in the room. She needed to bring him back to her, or she was afraid she would lose him. She thought she knew just how she could _show_ him that she would be there for him, that she cared. "Are you watching the movie?" she asked.

He looked down at her at the sound of her voice, and she could almost see him pulling his thoughts back to her living room. "Hmmm, not really," he admitted.

"Wanna do something else?" Elena tried to sound as flirtatious as she could manage. It wasn't exactly her forté, she thought.

Damon seemed to have caught her mood, though. "What did you have in mind?" He _definitely_ knew how to make even the most innocuous phrase sound dirty. She was going to have to learn that trick.

"Want to kiss me?"

"Always," Damon murmured, and he leaned forward to gently capture her lips with his. She opened her mouth a little, slipping her tongue out to tease along his lips, and he responded by urging her mouth open wider so that he could have access. The kiss quickly went from gentle to urgent, almost desperate, and Elena could feel a kind of wildness in the way Damon was touching her.

His wildness and desperation increasingly infected her mood, too, and Elena let every fear that she had lost him, every second that she had longed for his touch again, encourage her to greater urgency. She moved to straddle him on the couch, grinding herself down on him as she frantically fumbled with his shirt, finally getting it off. His hands seemed to be everywhere on her, and she moaned out his name, feeling how hard he was even though their clothes. His hands had slipped under her shirt, and he whispered a rough "sorry" as it tore in his hands.

Elena didn't care about the shirt. She tossed her head back, closing her eyes and moaning as Damon kissed his way down her neck and chest, his hands teasing her nipples through her bra. She felt his hand slip around her back to undo her bra, but to her surprise, he actually fumbled with the clasp, cursing as it defeated him. She looked down, prepared to tease him for such un-Damon like clumsiness, only to see the raw, desperate need in his eyes and on his face. It was intoxicating to realize how much he needed her, and she dropped her lips back to his, kissing him with everything she had in her.

She was suddenly aware that they were still on the couch in her living room, though. "Not here," she told him.

"Why not? Why wait?" Damon finally got the clasp on her bra undone and pulled it off.

"Damon, someone could walk in." It was hard to think, let alone talk, with his lips and hands all over her body.

His voice was low and husky. "Who? Jenna's out of town, right?"

"Jeremy could come home any time, Damon."

Damon sighed, and his gaze meeting hers was slightly calmer. "Upstairs, then?" he asked. Elena nodded and started to reluctantly slide off of him. He shook his head. "Just hold on."

Before Elena could even ask what he meant, he was on his feet as though she weighed absolutely nothing. She wrapped both her arms and her legs around him, and they were in her bedroom before she could do more than take a breath. Elena giggled at his use of vampire speed. Damon clearly did not like to wait for sex.

Damon shoved the door shut behind them, and then they were both tearing off the remainder of each other's clothes. Damon showed far less finesse than the previous time as he drove Elena backwards toward the bed with urgent kisses, but she didn't care. She was already soaking wet and more than ready for him, and she pulled him with her onto the bed. "Please, Damon. I want you inside of me," Elena moaned. She could see the urgency in his blue eyes, that hint of desperation still there.

Then he was filling her, and she lifted her hips to meet him thrust for thrust as he set a quick pace. Elena felt as though the whole room was shaking around her as Damon drove into her. "Faster," she gasped as he found the perfect angle, and a moment later she was screaming his name repeatedly as her climax started. Damon cried out too as he followed her at almost the same time, waves of pleasure rocking both their bodies until they finally collapsed together into a tangle of limbs.

•••••

Jeremy unlocked the door to his house, Bonnie's hand resting in his. The light was on in the living room, so he called out as he pushed the door open slowly, not wanting to surprise his sister on her date. "Elena? We're back."

There was no answer, and Jeremy opened the door the rest of the way and led Bonnie inside. A glance around the room showed pretty clearly how Elena's night had gone. His sister's bra – which Jeremy skimmed over quickly with his eyes – and shirt were on the floor along with a black button-down shirt. One guess who that shirt belonged to, Jeremy thought. He was just glad they had made it upstairs, since there were some things a guy just didn't want to see his sister doing.

Then Bonnie said pretty much what he had just been thinking. "Is that _Damon's_ shirt?" She sounded horrified.

Before Jeremy could come up with something to say, Elena's cries from upstairs confirmed exactly what she was doing and whom she was doing it with.

"She's with _Damon_?" Bonnie repeated in disbelief. "When did this happen? Is that why she was so bent on rescuing him?"

The witch started to head toward the stairs, radiating fury, and Jeremy tugged on his girlfriend's arm. If Bonnie interrupted Damon and Elena now, he wasn't sure who would end up dead but he was pretty sure someone would, whether witch, vampire, or innocent bystander like himself. Again. "Uh, why don't we go to your house? You can talk to Elena tomorrow."

Reluctantly, Bonnie turned from the stairs and followed Jeremy back out the door.

•••••

Damon lay back on Elena's bed. She was curled against him, her beautiful chestnut hair falling over his arm as he stroked her back slowly. He listened as her breathing slowed and deepened in sleep. His body wanted nothing more than to join her, but he kept himself rigidly awake. He didn't dare fall asleep with Elena for fear of what had happened the previous night. If his dreams went in that direction again, he knew he could easily hurt her.

When Damon was sure that Elena was deeply asleep, he slipped carefully out of her bed. He quickly put on the portion of his clothing that had made it upstairs, and then looked around for paper and pen with which to leave her a note. The pen stayed poised above the paper for a long time, however, as Damon tried to think of what to write. The truth was hardly an option in this case, and Damon had never been particularly good with words. Stefan and Elena were the ones who liked to write about their thoughts, not him.

Finally, however, Damon scribbled a couple of sentences and left the note on the pillow beside Elena. He ghosted down the stairs, finding his shirt downstairs along with Elena's bra and her torn shirt. Damon grinned as an idea came to him. Heading silently back up the stairs, he hung Elena's bra on her doorknob inside the room, feeling more pleased with that message than with the note he had written.

Once downstairs again, he cleaned up both the living room and the kitchen before heading back to the Boarding House.


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: **_This is kind of a filler chapter, but hopefully you like the friendship scenes. Next one will have more excitement!_

**Chapter 26**

Elena woke up to an empty bed. "Damon?" she called sleepily. The bed beside her was cold, so it seemed like he had been gone for a while. Elena sighed in disappointment. Why had he left?

After a moment, she spotted the note lying on the pillow beside her. _Thank you for a wonderful evening. I'm sorry I couldn't stay. –D_ Elena frowned as she read the oddly formal lines. That didn't answer any of her questions, except that Damon apparently hadn't been upset when he left. At least there was that. Something was definitely going on with him, however, and she desperately wanted him to let her in. She sank back on her bed with a sigh of frustration.

It was when she finally got out of bed an hour later that she saw her bra hanging on the doorknob and smiled.

•••••

Elena stared at Bonnie across the table at the coffee shop. She wasn't sure what to say. Jeremy had warned her that Bonnie probably wanted to talk about her and Damon, and she couldn't imagine that the conversation was likely to go well.

"When were you going to tell me?" Bonnie asked her bluntly.

Elena felt a wave of guilt. Bonnie had been her best friend for so long, and now she was keeping things from her. "I . . . ," she started, but Bonnie interrupted her.

"It's _Damon_, Elena," Bonnie hissed. "He killed Jeremy. He almost killed me. He abused Caroline. Have you forgotten all of that? How could you do this?"

"I haven't forgotten, Bonnie. But he's changed. He's a different person now."

"It's been a few months, Elena, and he's still a vampire. How much could he really have changed? He doesn't care about anyone."

Elena shook her head. She knew there was nothing logical about her feelings for Damon. It was all emotion, but being with him just felt right. And she knew that he needed her and he would do anything for her. "I can't explain it, Bonnie," she said reluctantly.

Bonnie glared at her. "Let me try, then. You think you can change him, redeem him. It's a classic, Elena. Girls always think the bad boy will change for them. It's part of the appeal. But Damon's not just a guy who wears a leather jacket and drives a sports car. He's a vampire who's been killing people for what, a hundred a fifty years?"

"You've been willing to work with him," Elena countered, knowing it was a lame argument.

Bonnie grabbed Elena's hand. Her eyes were wide and sincere. "Work with him, yes. Trust him, no. He's playing with you, Elena. Using you."

"He's not. He loves me."

"I doubt he's even capable of really loving someone," Bonnie said sadly. "Look, I'm just trying to be your friend here. You're making a mistake with Damon."

Elena just shook her head. She knew Bonnie meant what was she was saying and that her friend had the best of intentions, but she was equally sure about her feelings for Damon and what she felt when they were together. "I know you're just being my friend, Bon. But you're wrong about him. I'm sure of it."

Bonnie looked away. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Elena's voice was pleading. "Just give him a chance. That's all I ask."

Bonnie sighed. "I'll try." Both fell silent, and after a moment Bonnie continued. "Let's talk about something else. Did you finish your essay for English yet?"

Elena smiled. The last thing she wanted was to lose her friendship with Bonnie.

•••••

Alaric relaxed into one of the comfortable leather chairs in the library of the Boarding House, nursing his drink. He glanced over at Damon. He had just gotten back into town, and this was the first chance that he'd had to get together with his friend. Damon hadn't said much, but Ric had picked up an imprecise version of everything that had happened from Elena, and he was trying to figure out if Damon was okay. So far Damon seemed fine on the surface, but Ric thought his friend seemed . . . less irrepressible than usual.

He watched as Damon tilted his head back, resting it on the back of his own chair. His eyes closed, and Ric narrowed his own eyes. Yes, Damon did seem tired, he thought.

Suddenly Damon snapped his head up, shaking it slightly, and jumped out of his chair. He moved quickly over to the drink cart and poured himself another glass of bourbon. Alaric almost jumped up himself, sure that his friend's vampire hearing must have picked up some threat from the way Damon had jerked himself back to wakefulness. No threat materialized in the next few minutes, however, and Alaric decided that it was time to try to actually talk to Damon.

"Are you okay, Damon?" he asked quietly.

"When am I not okay, Ric?" Damon countered caustically. He refilled his glass yet again.

Alaric frowned. That sounded suspiciously like Damon-speak for _no, I'm not okay_, but his friend could be maddeningly hard to figure out. He tried to think of another approach and decided to stick with the direct one. "Are you sleeping, Damon?"

"I'm a vampire. I don't need sleep."

"You need some, don't you?"

Damon just shrugged and looked away. When Damon wouldn't meet his eyes, Ric decided to let the subject drop. At least he had an inkling of what was going on with Damon, although he couldn't for the life of him think of a way to help his friend get some rest. He didn't think they made sleeping pills for vampires.

A moment later, Damon sat back down in his chair. "I'm going to have to kill John Gilbert," he announced quietly.

Ric shook his head. "The guy's a dick, Damon, and I certainly wouldn't miss him – but he's Elena's uncle and biological father. Are you sure you should do that?" He suddenly realized that he had come pretty close to tacitly condoning murder. What the hell had Mystic Falls done to him?

Damon's answer mercifully cut off that line of thought. "It's kill or be killed. He's come after me too many times." Ric thought he could see doubt in his friend's sharp blue eyes, though. Damon wasn't sure if Elena would forgive him for killing John, Ric realized.

Ric decided to offer the blandest advice possible. "Just think before you act."

Damon scoffed at him. "Don't I always?"

Ric didn't think that deserved an answer, so he just sipped his drink as he and Damon lapsed into companionable silence.


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N: **_Elena and Damon are back in the same place in this chapter! Also, Bonnie is not superpowered in this story; she is still just a novice witch. And I don't like Caroline with Matt, so she is with Tyler, although that is all really happening off-screen. (This is random, but I can see why the writers for the show sometimes seem to have a hard time fitting in all the characters. There are a lot of main-ish characters!)_

_As always, reviews are much appreciated, and thanks to everyone who has reviewed and favorited (is that a word?) this story.  
_

**Chapter 27**

Elena looked around the booth at the Grill, feeling happy and relaxed. She had just had dinner with her friends, and they were waiting for the night's live band to start playing. Damon's arm rested around her shoulders, and her leg was pressed up against his in the small booth. They made quite an odd bunch, Elena thought. Two vampires, one werewolf, one witch, and two humans – and she was a Petrova doppelganger and Jeremy had a magic ring, so even the humans weren't exactly normal. Yet somehow, against all odds, it had actually been a fun evening so far.

For one thing, Damon seemed to be in a relatively mellow mood and was on his best behavior – he had actually kept his promise to refrain from any wolf jokes – and Elena had apparently managed to persuade Bonnie to give him a chance. After some initial awkwardness, dinner conversation had flowed fairly well, and Elena had some hope that her friends might actually accept her relationship with Damon.

There were only two sour notes to the night, Elena thought. First, she wished that Stefan had come with them, even though she understood that it hurt him to see her with Damon. But they were his friends, too, and she didn't like to see him isolated from everyone. And secondly, she was still worried about Damon. He seemed distracted at times, his attention flickering in and out in a way that she was almost certain had never happened before the past week. She was afraid that it meant that she could lose him again at any time, that he could lose himself in the pain that had trapped him in his own mind. But so far she hadn't worked up the courage to try to talk to him about it again. She just tried to keep him grounded in whatever way she could.

"I need to go to the little girls' room," Caroline announced, signaling with her eyes for Elena and Bonnie to join her.

Elena didn't even need to look at Damon to know he was rolling his eyes, and she hit him lightly in the side as she slipped out from under his arm. "I'll be right back," she told him.

"I'm going to get a drink," Damon announced as he slid out after her. "Anybody else want anything? Oh right, none of you are 21. And I am not buying any cokes that don't have rum in them." He sauntered off in the direction of the bar.

Elena shook her head as she followed Caroline and Bonnie to the bathroom.

When they came back out, Elena saw that Jeremy and Tyler were still alone at their table. Somehow she wasn't at all surprised that Damon had decided to take a break from the group, and she shouted to her friends over the crowd that she was going to find him at the bar.

It didn't take long to spot Damon's leather jacket, and somehow she wasn't surprised that he had managed to get a seat at the bar despite the crowd. She wondered if he had compelled someone for it. She called out "Damon" as she began to weave her way through the crowd, but he didn't turn around. She tried his name again as she got closer, still with no reaction, and she suddenly wondered if she had somehow mistaken someone else for Damon.

Finally, Elena had pushed her way through the crowd to the bar, and she reached out a hand to touch Damon's shoulder. "Hey, you," she said in her best flirty voice.

Damon whirled around in surprise, his eyes flashing so crazily that Elena involuntarily jumped back a step. She hit a man's arm, spilling half his beer – luckily on him rather than on herself. "What the hell, Damon," she said angrily before she turned to apologize to the man behind her.

When she turned back to Damon, he was looking at her with a puzzled expression. "Sorry," he said. "Haven't you learned not to sneak up on a . . ." He seemed to catch himself before saying too much. "Me," he finished lamely.

"I didn't sneak up on you. I called you twice," Elena responded. She didn't understand what had just happened. Damon was usually so preternaturally aware of his surroundings that it bordered on precognition; she couldn't even begin to count the number of times she had heard him greet someone before they had even entered the room. Even in the crowded bar, shouldn't he have somehow sensed her? He hadn't seemed to be particularly on edge tonight until now. "Are you okay?" she finally asked when he didn't say anything else.

"I'm fine, Elena." Damon threw back his drink and placed the glass back on the bar. The bartender must have known Damon because he refilled it instantly.

Elena thought Damon looked a bit worried, but she decided this was neither the time nor the place to push the matter further. "Let's go back to the table. The band is about to start," she said. She touched Damon's arm, and he followed her through the crowd without arguing.

•••••

Damon and Elena left the Grill together, and she took his hand in hers, interlacing her fingers with his. She was still worried about Damon. He had seemed tired and subdued throughout the concert, but she told herself that he would be fine. He just needed more time. It had only been a week since she had woken him up, after all.

It was a bit of a walk to Damon's car because of the crowd that had been at the Grill that night, and as they passed an alley, Elena suddenly felt a blur of wind. Damon's hand was abruptly torn from hers, and she turned in shock to see that another vampire had tackled him, driving him into one of the walls of the alley. She watched as Damon lay there for a moment, stunned by the suddenness of the attack, before getting to his feet. The vampire that had attacked Damon was a large man a good head taller than Damon, and to Elena's horror, he was immediately joined by another vampire.

Before Elena could even react, both vampires had charged Damon. Most of the fight was too fast for Elena's eyes to follow, but her heart was in her throat at the two against one odds. She saw the smaller of Damon's two attackers fly into a wall, but then Damon staggered under a blow from the other vampire. Elena desperately looked around the alley for something she could use as a weapon. Suddenly, however, she felt an arm close around her throat. She hadn't even heard the newest intruder approach. She tried to scream, but the sound was cut off abruptly by the steel grip on her throat. "Salvatore," a woman's voice said loudly. "Stop or I snap her neck."

Damon froze instantly, and his opponents each grabbed one of his arms as he turned to face the new arrival. "Lola," he said quietly. "What brings you to Mystic Falls?"

Damon's voice was calm, but Elena could see a flash of panic in his eyes. He knew that there would be nothing he could do if the other vampire decided to kill Elena.

"I got two cryptic voicemails from Thomas about this town," Lola answered. "The first one said Katherine was here, which I have found out wasn't the case, and the second said something about a human look-alike and mentioned you, Damon. And then Thomas disappeared, so I'm thinking you might know what happened to him." Her grip on Elena had never wavered, but Elena suddenly realized that the woman apparently didn't know that she was Katherine's doppelganger.

Elena thought she saw Damon's eyes narrow a fraction as he guessed the same thing. "I killed Thomas," he said, his voice disconcertingly matter-of-fact.

"Why would you do that?" Lola growled. Elena could feel the fury coursing through the woman.

"He pissed me off." Elena frowned. Damon was lying, or at least not telling the whole truth – he had killed Thomas because Thomas had threatened her. Then she realized with a sinking feeling that Damon was trying to protect her by drawing all of the other vampire's rage toward himself. Damn him. That was the kind of plan that would get Damon killed.

Lola wasn't buying it. "That doesn't make sense, Damon. Not even you are that stupid and reckless."

Damon tried to shrug, but with the two vampires holding him immobile, it turned into little more than a slight shift of his body. "This is my town," he said. "I don't want any other vampires here."

Elena could feel Lola drawing breath to respond, but suddenly the pressure at her throat was gone and she was free. She scrambled frantically away, turning to see that Lola was on the ground, clutching her head in agony. Elena looked up to see Bonnie at the entrance to the alleyway, her brows pulled down in concentration.

A flash of blond hair went by, and Elena saw that Caroline had thrown herself at the smaller of the two men holding Damon. Her attack managed to dislodge him, and Elena saw Damon take advantage of the opportunity to twist himself free of the larger man. Damon looked ready to reengage the fight, but Caroline grabbed his arm. "Damon, let's get out of here," she said, tugging on him.

Elena hurried to Bonnie's side. She watched as Damon pulled his arm free of Caroline's grip and threw a punch at the larger vampire that sent him reeling. "Damon, we need to go," Elena yelled. She could see that Bonnie was starting to weaken, and she was pretty sure that Caroline would be no match for any of these three vampires. "We need to get out of here, now."

Her voice got Damon's attention, but she could see the reluctance in his body at leaving the fight unfinished. "Please, Damon," she said, and he finally turned away to follow the three girls. Bonnie threw up a wall of fire to cover their escape, and Caroline half-carried the exhausted witch as they ran.

•••••

Given how late it was, all the teenagers had to get home, and Elena and Damon ended up back at her house while Jeremy stayed at Bonnie's since her dad was out of town.

Elena sighed and sank down on the couch in exhaustion. Her throat was sore where the vampire Lola had grabbed her, and she was generally tired and scared. "What are we going to do? There are at least three new vampires in town after us."

"Well, after me," Damon corrected her. "They should be easy enough to deal with . . ."

Elena interrupted him when a thought occurred to her. "They didn't recognize me. Why didn't they know I'm the doppelganger?"

Damon tilted his head, ice blue eyes wide. "They probably don't know anything about the doppelganger. At least we can hope they don't." He paused for a moment. "And not everyone knows what Katherine looks like, after all. She did a pretty good job of keeping a low profile for almost a hundred and fifty years."

"So Lola, or whatever her name is, didn't know Katherine like Thomas did?"

Damon shook his head. "Nope. Thomas turned Lola a few decades ago. That's probably why she brought her friends with her. She knew she couldn't take me in a fair fight."

Elena looked at him. He sounded as cocky as ever, but his appearance didn't match his voice. He looked as exhausted as she felt, Elena thought suddenly. She could see dirt and grime on his leather jacket and what looked like blood on his shirt and his jeans. There was a smear of dirt on his forehead. Her fear was suddenly replaced by anger as she thought about the risk that Damon had taken in that alley. She stood up and glared at him. "Damon, what were you doing back there? Why did you take the blame?"

Damon looked surprised. "I was trying to keep you from getting killed."

"By putting a target on your own back? Why did you tell them that you killed Thomas?"

"Because I did kill him?"

Elena knew she probably wasn't being fair to Damon, but she needed to redirect the wave of emotions swirling through her mind. "So you could conveniently leave out my role in all of this, but you couldn't possibly lie about your own actions?"

Damon looked thoroughly confused now, but Elena could also see that he was beginning to get angry himself. "I didn't exactly have a lot of time to think. They took me by surprise, you know." He turned away from her and took a deep breath. "Which never should have happened," he added more softly.

Elena felt her anger ebbing as suddenly as it had risen at the tone of his voice. She had just been scared, for herself and for him, after all. But they were okay. Bonnie and Caroline had gotten there in time, and Damon probably would have found a way to talk his way out if trouble if they hadn't, Elena thought ruefully. They would get through this vampire problem like they had gotten through all the other crises, she told herself.

Damon stood staring out the window, lost in his own thoughts as she was lost in hers, and Elena could see from the set of his jaw and the tension in his shoulders that something was wrong. "Damon, what is it?" she asked.

He spoke reluctantly, as though forcing the words out. "I'm off my game, Elena, and you could have died because of it."

"None of this is your fault, Damon."

"Isn't it?" He turned to face her, eyes wild. His finger brushed against her bruised throat, his touch so tender that she could hardly feel it. "You need to stay away from me, Elena. I bring nothing but darkness and pain into your life."

Elena felt horrified at his words. "That's not true, Damon." She stepped closer to him, bringing her hands to either side of his head. She needed him to really hear her. "You save me from the darkness and pain. You make me feel alive, and I love you and I need you." She searched his beautiful blue eyes, waiting for the wildness to dissipate. She stroked his cheek gently with one hand. Finally, she could see and feel it as he calmed down.

"I love you, Damon," she repeated as she brought her lips to his.


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N: **_Not sure how I felt about tonight's episode, so I will post this as a distraction._

**Disclaimer: **_I don't own anything to do with _The Vampire Diaries._  
_

**Chapter 28**

"Elena, could you stay after class for a few minutes?"

Alaric's voice called Elena out of her daydream. What had she missed? Had Ric seen that she hadn't been paying attention? "Of course, Mr. Saltzman." She nodded to Bonnie and Caroline that she would see them later and packed up her stuff slowly, waiting for the rest of the class to file out. Finally, she was the only student left in the room.

"How's Damon doing?" Alaric asked without preamble.

Elena felt a wave of relief that Ric wasn't going to lecture her on not paying attention in history class. "He's fine," she answered reflexively. Then she caught herself. Was Damon rubbing off on her that she didn't trust anyone? Ric was Damon's friend, and she was sure he was sincerely concerned about the vampire. Plus, he might be able to help her figure out what was going on with Damon.

Ric was also looking at her skeptically, so Elena corrected herself. "Well, he seems fine most of the time. But he's . . . distracted, and he seems really tired." She gave Ric a pleading look. "Have you talked to him?"

"I tried. He didn't say much, of course."

Elena nodded. Yep, that was Damon. "He hasn't said much to me either."

Ric hesitated. "I think he isn't sleeping. Stefan might know more . . . " His voice trailed off.

Elena nodded. That made sense, actually. It would explain why Damon continually refused to stay with her overnight, and it would explain his obvious exhaustion. "Why?" she asked.

"That, I don't know. I'm sure he has a reason, although I'm not sure I want to know it." Ric smiled at her ruefully.

"I'll talk to Stefan. Maybe he'll know."

"Elena," Ric hesitated, then shook his head slightly. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

Elena was pretty sure that hadn't been what he was going to say, but she just nodded.

•••••

Elena took Damon's hand, leading him through the door of his bedroom. They had decided to stay in that night, and Damon had made her dinner at the boarding house. He didn't know it, but she had the whole evening planned out. "I have a surprise for you," she told him.

He grinned and did the eye-thing that always made her stomach flutter. "You know I like surprises."

"Good. Take off your clothes and lie down on the bed."

Damon's eyes sparkled at her, and he began to strip off his clothes in a slow, deliberate strip tease that almost caused Elena to abandon her entire plan for the evening. Catching her breath, Elena waved a hand at him with a casualness that she knew he recognized as false. "Now lie down on the bed. On your stomach." She tried to keep her voice matter of fact.

Damon shot her another look that almost unmade her, sending a wave of heat through her entire body, but he did as she had told him. Elena went to the bag that she had deposited in the corner earlier, pulling out scented oils that she had purchased. Then she kicked off her shoes and socks and went to join Damon on the bed.

"Do vampires like massages?" she asked him.

"Doesn't everyone like massages?"

She grinned. "That's what I thought. Now try to relax." Elena dropped a bit of the oil on his skin and giggled as he twitched. Then she began to rub the oil into the muscles of his back and shoulders, her hands working out every kink that she found. It took only a few minutes before she felt Damon relax completely, virtually purring under her hands. Elena smiled to herself, savoring the feeling of having the upper hand. This vampire didn't just like massages. He loved massages, and she was so going to use that knowledge.

Just when Elena planned to turn things from innocent to sexual, however, she realized that Damon had fallen asleep. She sighed, a bit disappointed in the evening coming to an end so soon. She had planned on getting Damon to fall asleep with her tonight, but she had intended to tire him out in other ways after relaxing him with the massage. Stefan had confirmed Alaric's theory that Damon wasn't sleeping, and he had told her about Damon's nightmares.

Damon was certainly calm and relaxed now, Elena thought, watching him sleep. She couldn't even regret the premature end to her evening, knowing how much Damon needed the sleep. Vampires didn't require as much sleep as humans, but they did require some and it was obvious that lack of sleep was taking a toll on Damon. She knew that he was still blaming himself for getting taken by surprise the other night, convinced that he should have somehow sensed the threat and been able to protect her. And she did need him to be at full strength.

So tonight, Elena thought, looking at Damon tenderly, she would stay, and she would make sure that nothing disturbed his sleep.

•••••

Elena woke up when Damon kicked her. It was dark in the room, but she could feel him tossing and turning beside her. "Damon?" she asked sleepily and got no response. He seemed to be getting progressively more restless, and he made a small sound like he was in pain. That was what made Elena realize that Damon was slipping into one of the nightmares that Stefan had mentioned, the nightmares that had scared Damon – who was afraid of almost nothing – into trying to stop sleeping entirely.

That was just not acceptable, Elena thought stubbornly. Damon needed to sleep, and his nightmares couldn't have him. She wouldn't let them. This was all her fault anyway, since she had known he was in trouble and let other people talk her out of looking for him until it was almost too late. And then she had put him through hell because she couldn't face living without him. If he was stuck in a nightmare memory of those days, it was the least she could do to find a way to pull him out of that, too.

Elena started stroking his arm. "Shhh, Damon. You're okay. You're safe." She made her voice as soothing as possible, repeating those words over and over. She shifted her hand to stroke the side of his face, and she could feel the sweat on his normally cool skin. Gradually, he calmed down under her touch, although he didn't wake up, and finally after a few minutes he seemed to have returned to sleeping peacefully.

Elena lay back down, although she kept a hold of Damon's hand, and soon the darkness of the room and the sound of his deep breathing beside her had lulled her into joining him in sleep.

**A/N: **_Coming next chapter: more smut!_


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N: **_This story is at 95 reviews as I post this, so if you like this chapter (or for that matter if you don't), please review so it can hit triple digits! And thank you to everyone who has reviewed and favorited this story so far!_

**Disclaimer: **_As always, they are not mine, unfortunately.__  
_

**Chapter 29**

Elena woke up again as sunlight crept past the curtains into Damon's bedroom. She kept herself still when she realized that Damon was still asleep. She wanted a few minutes to just watch him, unobserved. He was facing her now, his mouth open slightly and his lips temptingly pink. His black hair stuck out in crazy spikes. It looked longer than usual to Elena, and she smiled as she realized that he needed a haircut. He looked absolutely adorable, although Elena could just imagine how he would bristle at that characterization.

She realized with a start that this would be the first time that they would wake up together since that first fateful morning, and she felt a wave of regret at how badly she had messed things up that day. Not this time. He was hers and she was keeping him, even if she had to battle nightmares, vampires, and vampire hunters to do so.

Elena wasn't naïve enough to think that would always be easy. She knew that he was badly damaged emotionally, not to mention being a vampire. But she was sure that there was a beautiful soul inside Damon, despite all his claims to the contrary. That person was kind, loyal, deeply unselfish, and capable of loving in a way that few people were. And she wanted to be the one to finally return that love. She brought her hand up to gently caress his cheek.

A moment later, Damon opened his eyes, looking at her sleepily. Elena felt her breath catch, as it so often did under his gaze. No one had eyes like Damon.

•••••

Damon woke up to find Elena watching him with a little smile on her face. He smiled back as he heard her breathing change; he was just glad that she couldn't tell that she had the same effect on him. Sometimes being a vampire was a definite advantage.

Elena's smile grew as she saw he was awake. "Did you sleep well?" she asked quietly.

"Mmm hmm," Damon answered. "Thank you," he added, his voice still a bit rough with sleep. He could already tell that his body had been restored by a night's sleep, and he felt ready to face another set of crises. Well, maybe after a little more fun in bed with Elena.

"You know, you owe me from last night. You fell asleep." She was giving him that pouty look that made him melt.

"It's not my fault that you have _very_ talented hands," he retorted. "But I promise to make it up to you."

"Will you do anything I want?" He was about to answer in the affirmative when Elena pressed herself closer to him and continued. "It was kind of fun feeling you turn into putty in my hands last night," she whispered.

Damon wasn't about to tell her that he was always putty in her hands if she hadn't already figured that out. Before he could come up with a response, Elena took his hand and start pressing soft kisses to his palm. She kissed her way up his arm to his collarbone, and Damon closed his eyes with a moan of pleasure. This was the best way to wake up ever. Without even thinking about it, he tilted his head to give her access to his neck, a sign of complete trust on the part of a vampire, although he knew Elena probably didn't realize that. She kissed his neck, and he moaned again as she found a particularly sensitive spot. He felt her dull human teeth nibble at his skin, and her name escaped his lips as a wave of pleasure gripped his body. He was completely hard already, and he opened his eyes as he felt one of Elena's hands slip down to stroke his cock. Her body was pressed on top of his, and she kissed him hungrily. "You are _so _easy," she said teasingly.

She captured his lips again before he could answer. Then she sat up, straddling him where he lay on the bed. She pulled his arms up over his head, holding them there as she bent to kiss him again. "No moving," she told him, and Damon nodded, although he wasn't sure how long he could hold out. He wanted to touch her, of course, but he wanted to see where she would take this, too.

Elena slid slowly down his body then, kissing every inch of him as she moved, and he bucked up off the bed involuntarily. She pressed him back down, and he gasped but let her press him back into the sheets. "What did I tell you?" she said teasingly, and Damon tried to nod his assent.

Her mouth was on his cock now, though, and he felt like he was going to explode with pleasure. She took his tip into her mouth, one hand teasing at the base of his erection. It was all he could do to keep his hands where she had put them, but he couldn't stop his body from writhing under her. "Elena," he pleaded, gasping.

She trailed her tongue along the bottom of his cock. "You have no discipline, Damon," she said as she sat up.

"Never claimed to," he ground out. "Please, Elena."

She had a huge grin on her face, but Damon didn't even care that he was practically begging. "What do you want?" she asked.

"You. Fuck me, please, Elena."

She put a hand on his chest. "If you're a good boy. Keep your hands where they are." Her grin kind of spoiled the effect, but Damon nodded desperately.

Ever so slowly, Elena lowered herself onto him, sheathing his cock in her body until she had taken all of him in. She was so wet and tight that he moaned again, afraid that he was going to lose it at any moment. He rolled his hips slightly and drew an answering moan from her. She slowly began to move up and down on him, and Damon didn't think he had ever in his obscenely long life seen anything as erotic as Elena riding him. He watched hungrily as her perfect breasts bounced with her movements, and she threw her head back. Her hair was wild and her lips were red and swollen from kissing him. Her expression was that of a woman entirely lost in pleasure, and Damon locked that image of her in his mind. His sex goddess.

She moved faster as she found her rhythm, and he started thrusting up to meet her and increase the friction between them. "Oh god, Elena," Damon gasped. Finally, he felt her muscles tighten around him and she screamed out his name as her orgasm hit. The clench of her muscles was the last straw for Damon, and he came too, releasing into her as his cry of pleasure matched hers.

She slipped off him after a moment, collapsing against his side and resting her head on his chest. Damon shifted a little to bring his arms around her, assuming that he was finally allowed to move and touch her. "Wow," she murmured.

"Mmm hmm." Damon wasn't sure he was ready to say anything, but he kissed the top of her head, his hand stroking her shoulder. She was fucking amazing.

After a few minutes of lying there in companionable silence, Elena shifted a little. "So you don't mind if I . . . want to take charge sometimes?"

"I love it," Damon said truthfully. After all, he was the guy who had (stupidly) fallen head over heels in love with Katherine. He had a thing for strong, assertive women – in and out of bed. The fact that Elena had never backed down from him was one of the things that had captured his heart.

"Good," Elena said with a satisfied little smile.

"But," Damon went on mischievously, "I think I owe you twice over now." When Elena shot him a blank look, he explained. "You said I had to make last night up to you, since I fell asleep, and that time was all you. So it's my turn." Before she could say anything, he had flipped their positions so that he was above her.

He kissed her deeply, one hand massaging her breast and teasing her nipple. When he was satisfied that she was definitely ready for another round, he began to work his way down her body with his mouth and hands. She was already writhing when he pushed her legs apart, teasing her clit with his tongue. "Damon," she moaned, and he smiled, looking up at her from between her legs. Time to make _her_ beg.

•••••

Elena lay in her favorite post-coital position curled against Damon, her head on his chest and his arm around her. She had never felt so satisfied in her life, and she never wanted to move from that spot, but she knew they couldn't actually spend all day in bed, even on a Sunday. She hoped, though, that she might be able to get Damon to open up to her today. She pulled away slightly so that she could look at him.

"Damon," she started tentatively. "You don't have to deal with everything alone, you know."

Damon sighed, but Elena thought it was a good sign that not only hadn't he run away at her first words but his body still felt relaxed against hers. He was silent for a long moment. Then he said, "Okay, I'll try to explain." He didn't say any more, though, and the silence stretched on so long that Elena couldn't stand it anymore.

"Damon?"

"Did Stefan ever explain to you about vampire emotions?"

Elena nodded. That seemed to be a non sequitur, but Elena was determined to let Damon take the lead now. She expected getting him to open up to her would be a slow process. "Yes, he said that they're heightened?"

"Right. When you're turned, all your emotions suddenly become much more intense. So love, hate, pain, loneliness – whatever you're feeling becomes degrees of magnitude more powerful than what you felt as a human."

"So all the pain and loneliness you felt for 145 years . . . " Elena stopped, her eyes wide. She suddenly thought she understood the pain she had seen in Damon's eyes when she had brought him back to his body.

"Yep," Damon nodded. "I think the love I felt for Katherine as a human – which was real if completely stupid and misguided, by the way – was magnified by becoming a vampire, too." He paused again. "But I think that's why vampires, or at least young vampires, have a switch where we can turn off our emotions. Most new vampires end up killing someone they love because they seek that person out, thinking they have things under control. And then the emotions trigger the craving for blood, and presto, dead loved one. And the only way they can deal with it is to turn it all off and not feel the guilt."

"Damon," Elena admonished. Only Damon would half-joke about killing loved ones. Then something else he had said clicked in her mind. "Did you . . . ," she stopped, unable to say the words.

Damon, of course, had no such problem. "Kill someone I loved?" he finished for her. "Actually, no." He paused. "Most of them were already dead." His tone had started off snarky and trailed off into something else, and Elena could almost feel the weight of the silence that ensued. She cast about desperately for a way to break it.

"You said young vampires have the switch?" she finally asked.

"I guess it stops working after a couple of centuries. That's what Rose told me, and it makes sense. Because I can't turn my emotions off anymore, Elena, even if I wanted to." He met her eyes and gave her a rueful smile. "Not that I want to, since then I couldn't love you – although I can't say that there haven't been times in the past year when I might have turned them off if I could." He paused again, and Elena kept silent, afraid that Damon might stop talking if she said anything. "But you have to understand that I had my emotions shut off for well over a century, before meeting you and . . . losing the dream of Katherine somehow switched them back on. So I had never really figured out how to deal with everything that I could feel as a vampire, and that's why I've made so many mistakes and I'll probably keep making mistakes and hurting you and everyone around me."

Elena didn't like the direction Damon's thoughts appeared to be going in now. "Damon," she interrupted, stroking his chest gently. "You don't have to figure it out alone, you know. You have people who love you, and we want to help you. You just have to let us in, just a little."

He sighed again. "I'm trying, Elena. I really am. It's just hard for me to trust anyone."

"I know," she leaned forward to brush her lips softly against his. "But you can trust me. I love you, Damon."

He smiled then, a real, sincere smile that matched the love Elena could see in his eyes. She thought he was more beautiful than ever with that smile on his face. "I love you, too, Elena," he said softly.


	30. Chapter 30

**Disclaimer: **_This is all just for fun. I do not own anything._

**Chapter 30**

Damon scanned the living room of the Boarding House in annoyance. There were far too many people at this "brain-storming" meeting. He really wished Elena would just let him deal with Lola and her friends his way. It would be easy enough for him to simply kill them, but Elena seemed to think that was too risky. Still, her insistence on an elaborate "team" plan gave him a chance to solve both his problems at once.

"So," Damon began. "We have two problems – a group of vampires and a group of vampire hunters. I'm thinking that we introduce them to each other and kill two birds with one stone, so to speak."

"How do we do that?" Jeremy asked before anyone else could speak.

Damon grinned. "We give them what they both want – me. I'm the bait."

"No," Elena and Bonnie said simultaneously.

"That's too dangerous. You're not going to be bait," Elena continued angrily.

Bonnie followed immediately with, "And you're not leading a bunch of humans to their slaughter."

Damon just shrugged and sat back as the room erupted in debate. He was pretty sure a variation of his plan would be selected in the end. It was unlikely that anyone else in this motley crew would come up with a better idea.

•••••

Elena watched as Damon pulled on a black t-shirt to go with the black jeans he was already wearing. On anyone else, it might have been considered a cat burglar outfit, but it was pretty much what Damon wore on a daily basis. And he looked sexy as hell, of course.

Damon grinned as he caught Elena watching him. "Do I look irresistible . . . the perfect bait?" he asked, giving her his trademark eye thing.

"You're not bait, Damon," Elena said patiently. Damon was much more like his old self since she had managed to force him to get some sleep – which meant he was cocky and cavalier and, yes, totally irresistible.

"Yes, I am," he said, and then he was right in front of her. He bent to kiss her, and Elena moaned as his tongue expertly teased her lips before slipping between them. His hands gently stroked the sides of her face as his tongue explored her mouth, his lips warm and soft against hers. She would never get tired of kissing him.

He pulled away after a moment, however, both of them well aware that they had an ambush that night. Elena grabbed his hand as he withdrew a step. "Promise me you'll be careful tonight," she said quietly.

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Careful is my middle name."

"No, your middle name is more like reckless," Elena said, rolling her eyes.

"What could possibly go wrong?" Damon asked, gesturing with his hands and almost bouncing across the room now. "We have such an awesome, overly complicated plan."

He certainly had his energy back, Elena thought almost ruefully. "Damon, the plan is solid. Or it would have been if you hadn't just jinxed it."

"Did not," Damon said as he danced out of the room. "You coming? I have some vampires to hook."

•••••

Damon walked out into the open clearing, careful to project all his usual swagger. "Lola," he called out in a sing-song voice, just because the name was so perfect for it. And because he was pretty sure it would annoy the other vampire. "Come out and play."

The female vampire appeared in front of him. "Damon," she said flatly. "Were you actually stupid enough to come alone?"

Damon shrugged. "What do you think?"

Lola narrowed her eyes at him. "I wouldn't put much past you, although I'm guessing your friends are around here somewhere. My friends, on the other hand, are right here." She waved a hand, and five other vampires stepped from the woods, flaring out in a circle around Damon.

_Fuck, this is going to be a problem. _Damon kept his expression unchanging. He was confident that he could have held his own easily enough against the Lola and the two other vampires from the alley, but he didn't like the odds of one on six. The only thing to do was to stall. "I'm just here for a friendly chat," he said calmly.

Lola tilted her head. "In that case, why don't you tell me about the girl you were with the other night?"

"What girl?" Damon asked, his mind racing as he played dumb.

"She was the doppelganger, wasn't she? You see, I've been making some calls, Damon. You tell me where she is, and I'll let you live."

_Shit, Lola has gotten a clue._ He lied smoothly. "Sorry to disappoint you, but she was just dinner."

"I don't think so. You stopped fighting when I threatened her."

Damon shrugged casually. "I'd been seen leaving the bar with her. I didn't feel like trying to explain her disappearance. The local Council goes on these vampire-hunting kicks, you see. It's the problem with a town with history."

Lola was watching him intently. "You're full of shit, Damon," she said, but he thought he saw a bit of doubt in her eyes. _Good_, Damon thought. _I can't have her going after Elena. Especially since the stupid plan is already falling apart. Hopefully I can at least take her down with me._

Lola continued talking. "I learned some interesting things about this doppelganger. Seems if we sacrifice her, we'll be able to walk in the sun. I kind of miss the sunshine, not that you would know how that feels."

Damon laughed, a maniacal sound. "You believe that story?" he said scornfully. He was determined to play this out for as long as he possibly could. He just had to hope that Stefan had the sense to keep Elena out of the way when the fighting finally did start. His brother should be able to hear the whole conversation, so even Stefan ought to be able to figure out that keeping Elena away should be his first priority. "I hate to burst your bubble, but that's an urban legend, honey."

"Somehow I just don't believe you," Lola told him. "And I think you're going to tell us exactly where to find the girl." She raised her hand to signal the other vampires to attack, and Damon knew that he had run out of time.

He dodged the first attacker, slipping to the side and grabbing the vampire's arm to fling him into another attacker coming from his left. He almost managed to avoid a blow from a third vampire, the large one from the alley, but it caught him in the shoulder, staggering him. Off balance, Damon was born to the ground by the fourth attacker, and then two vampires were pummeling him.

Damon resisted the urge to curl up into a ball. His body could take the punishment. He ignored one of his attackers, striking at the other one to gain space to twist away and regain his feet. He kicked out and felt his foot make contact with one of the vampires as he dodged another attack.

Unfortunately, he never saw the arm that drove a stake through his stomach, and this time there was no resisting his body's instinctive reaction as he doubled over in pain. He felt another stake stab through his back, and his knees buckled.

Lola stepped in front of Damon as he knelt on the ground, gasping against the pain of the two stakes through his body. "So are you ready to talk?" she asked him coldly.

"Sure. About what?"

Lola gestured, and one of the vampires behind Damon stepped forward and jerked the stake through his back upward. He couldn't stop himself from crying out at the pain. "About the girl, you idiot."

"I told you," Damon ground out. "She was just a girl who looked tasty."

"You're lying."

Then he heard a totally unexpected sound. Someone was clapping. "Well, well, this is an unexpected scene." John Gilbert was approaching, his trademark smarmy grin on his face.

•••••

Stefan and Elena were watching from high up in a tree not too far away. They weren't supposed to be so close, and Elena wasn't supposed to be able to see what was happening, but she had convinced Stefan to bring her up in the tree with him. He knew how much she hated to be relegated to the sideline, and truth be told, he wasn't all that happy about his part in Damon's plan either.

They watched as three more vampires than they had expected showed up to threaten Damon, and Stefan heard the conversation in which Damon tried to convince Lola that she was all wrong about the doppelganger. His brother could be a damn good liar, but Stefan could tell that Damon wasn't having much luck selling his story this time.

"Stefan, what are they talking about?" Elena whispered. He could hear the frustration in her voice.

"She knows about you, Elena," he whispered back after a moment of internal debate.

"Shit," Elena said. And then, "sorry."

Stefan half-smiled at that. She must have been spending too much time with Damon; his brother was rubbing off on her.

Elena continued. "What's Damon . . . " She stopped abruptly as the vampires attacked Damon. Stefan reminded himself, not for the first time since they had hashed out the plan, that Damon didn't have to win this fight. His brother just had to stay alive until the vampire hunters were in place and phase two kicked in. But that didn't make it any easier to watch, especially since Damon was only supposed to be facing three other vampires. Elena clutched Stefan's arm as they watched Damon fighting against impossible odds, finally sinking to his knees with two stakes in his body.

Elena gasped. "Stefan, they're going to kill him. We have to help him!" Her voice was louder than it probably should have been given the number of vampires in the area.

Stefan closed his eyes, torn between his own desire to help his brother and his knowledge that Damon would want him to keep Elena well away from danger.

"Stefan, get me down from here. Now!" Elena glared at him, fury and determination in her brown eyes.

Stefan sighed. He would prefer that Damon was alive to berate him for not following the plan to the most likely alternative, which was his brother with a stake through his heart because of his stupid insistence that he and he alone should serve as bait and be right in the middle of the fighting. And he had never been able to deny Elena anything, after all. He wrapped his arms around Elena's waist and jumped them both down out of the tree.

Elena immediately took off at a run toward the clearing, and Stefan kept pace with her. "What are you doing?" she said breathlessly. "Go! Help Damon!"

Stefan hesitated a moment more. Then he sped up and left Elena behind.

•••••

Still on his knees, Damon gathered what strength he had left. It was time for phase two of the plan, and the good news was he was still alive. Well, undead. He didn't exactly trust John Gilbert – hell, he didn't trust the man at all – but he had little choice at this point but to hope that John stuck to the deal he had supposedly made with Elena.

Damon watched John closely as the man stopped a short distance away from the group of vampires surrounding Damon. John moved his hand to his hip in an awkward gesture, and Damon dropped to the ground at the prearranged signal. Whatever his captors had been expecting it certainly wasn't that, but a second later they had bigger things to worry about as bullets and arrows were flying through the air. The human vampire hunters had arrived.

Damon ignored the chaos around him as Lola's band of vampires tried to figure out where the attack was coming from. Gritting his teeth, Damon pulled the first stake out of his stomach. The second one was harder since it had been driven in from the back, but some excruciatingly painful contorting of his body allowed Damon to get a solid grip on the stake and jerk it back out of his body inch by inch. It hurt like hell, and he wanted nothing more than to just lie there on the ground when it was finally out. Too bad he was in the middle of a hail of wooden projectiles, and staying low was already reaching its limit as a survival strategy.

Damon rolled to his hands and knees. After a moment to steel himself and catch his breath, he got to his feet, staying in a crouch and moving east. In theory, once he got clear of the fighting, Bonnie would give him cover to finish his escape into the woods, and the vampire hunters would take out Lola and her band, with Damon waiting to finish off any stragglers.

To his amazement, Damon actually did make it to the edge of the fighting without getting hit by any stray bullets, and he was equally amazed when the planned wall of fire roared up behind him. The little witch was actually sticking with her part of the plan, and Damon was just about to head for the trees when he heard the sound of a gun cocking. Turning around, he saw that John Gilbert had followed him.

"You were right, Damon," John said. "I should have just staked you after all."

"But think of all the_ fun_ we would have missed out on," Damon countered. He was watching the gun in John's hand very closely. He had promised Elena weeks ago that he would practice dodging bullets, and while he hadn't done any such thing, he had given some thought to the concept. He had his doubts that he could outrun a bullet – especially with two stake wounds in his torso – but he was sure that he could move faster than a human trigger finger. So most of his attention was trained on John's finger. "Are you going back on your deal with Elena? Did you know that she told me she loves me?"

John shrugged. "That's why you have to die, Damon. She deserves a life free from monsters like you." He paused, his eyes filled with determination. "I promised her that my men would spare you, but I'll be the one to end all of this. And the beauty of it is that there will be no way to tell what exactly happened in all this chaos. Your wounds made you slow."

Damon saw John's finger begin to move, and he knew that this was the test of whether he would be too slow. He flashed a step to the side and threw himself at John as the bullet went whizzing by where he had been standing.

But someone else was as fast as Damon. In the fraction of a second before he reached John, a heavy body knocked into him, sending them both sprawling.


	31. Chapter 31

**A/N: **_Sorry for the delay in posting this, especially after leaving the last chapter in the middle of a fight. Bonnie might be a little OOC in this one, but hopefully not too bad. I thought the show dropped her guilt over Caroline becoming a vampire a bit too easily, so that is part of the motivation behind her actions here. And thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has reviewed - I'm so excited to pass 100 reviews on my first story!_

**Chapter 31**

Damon lay still, momentarily stunned by the unexpected blow. Shifting slightly, he saw who had knocked him down. "Stefan," he groaned, his anger rising. "What the hell are you doing? You're supposed to be . . ." Damon's words were cut off abruptly as a gun went off at close range and a wooden bullet buried itself in his shoulder, just missing his heart. "Fuck," he gasped. John had taken advantage of Stefan's interference to gain the upper hand, and Damon could feel his growing weakness as the accumulating wounds took a toll on him.

John turned slightly, and his next bullet went into Stefan. Damon heard his brother groan and saw his eyes close, and he knew with a sinking feeling that Stefan's animal blood diet made him far too susceptible to physical damage. _Great, one weak little brother to protect is just what I need right now_, Damon thought bitterly. John fired another shot, this time into Damon's thigh, and he desperately fought the blackness descending on his own mind. He couldn't afford to lose consciousness now.

Suddenly, there was another figure skidding to a stop in front of him. "Stop!" He heard Elena's voice, shaking with fury. "What are you doing? You promised!" Damon watched as Elena put her slim body between him and John's gun. Her normally neat, straight hair was wild, and he could see twigs caught in it. He could hear that her heart was racing. She had been running through the forest, Damon realized. Even as he knew that she shouldn't be there, he loved her for her crazy courage.

John's voice was low, and Damon thought the man was going for soothing. "Elena, I'm doing you a favor here. You can't go on like this, with all these supernatural elements in your life. I'm just trying to protect you."

Elena put her hands on her hips, everything about her stance radiating fury. "It's my life and my choice," she said breathlessly. "And Damon and Stefan have done nothing but protect me. Unlike you."

"Protect you? Really?" John said scornfully. "They lured Katherine to you – and now these vampires." He gestured around the clearing. "They antagonized werewolves . . . "

"Shut up," Elena interrupted. "In case you haven't noticed, I was born the doppelganger. This all would have happened anyway." Her voice broke slightly, her anger – and the strength it had given her – seemingly fading.

Damon was trying to get to his feet now to stand with Elena. He managed to sit up and was struggling to get his legs under him when he heard Elena cry out in surprise and pain. Then she was falling back into him, and Damon caught her instinctively, wincing at the pain from the bullet in his shoulder as he moved his arm quickly to catch her slight weight. "Elena?" he asked, shifting her in his arms so that he could look at her.

Her soft brown eyes met his, and to his horror, he saw that her eyes were dilating with pain. "It hurts, Damon," she murmured.

He smelled it then. Her blood, spreading in a red stain from a bullet wound in her shoulder. _Fuck_, Damon thought, feeling a horrible desire to laugh to cover his despair. They had matching wounds now, except Elena wasn't a vampire who could heal in minutes. This was why she wasn't supposed to have been anywhere near the fighting. Damn Stefan and his inability to carry out even one simple task. Damon could feel tears in his eyes as he watched her eyes close. "Elena, stay with me," he pleaded desperately.

Almost from a distance, Damon heard himself growl as John rushed to crouch beside him as he held Elena's body. He could feel his face change, and he knew he was rapidly losing all control of himself.

"Is she okay?" John's voice was filled with what, at another time, Damon would have recognized as sincere concern. "It was a stray bullet. Damn it, she never should have been here. We have to get her out of here."

Damon tried to tamp down his fury. Taking it out on John would serve no useful purpose, and for once the man was right. He had to get Elena out of there. He had to give her his blood, heal her. He couldn't lose her. But his internal struggle was interrupted by another voice that he had hoped never to hear again.

"And you said she didn't mean anything to you." Lola laughed. "I think this little tableau proves otherwise. Sorry, Damon, but I'll be taking the girl with me. Don't worry – I'll keep her alive as long as she proves useful."

Damon let the fury right back in, let it fill his body and give him strength that he shouldn't have had. Setting Elena down gently, he launched himself at Lola without a word. The suddenness of his attack took the other vampire by surprise, and he bore her to the ground, landing on top of her. Without the slightest hesitation, Damon plunged his hand into her chest, pulling her heart out and tossing it to the side. One problem solved.

John was staring at Damon, looking afraid of the vampire for the first time, but Damon barely noticed. He was back by Elena's side before John could even move, and he scooped her limp body up in his arms. "Make yourself useful. Help Stefan," he snarled at John. Then Damon sped toward the trees where he knew Bonnie, Caroline, and Alaric should be. He felt almost calm now that his initial panic had passed, and killing Lola had placated his vampire side. He would get Elena out of the line of fire, and then he would heal her. He could hear her heart beating steadily enough, if slowly, so he knew he had at least a few minutes.

It took only seconds for Damon to reach the vantage point where Bonnie had been watching to play her part in their stupid plan, with Caroline and Alaric to guard her. All three of them stared as he slid to a stop, setting Elena down gently.

Bonnie was the first to react. "Oh my god! What happened?" the witch demanded angrily.

Damon wanted nothing more than to ignore them all, but he forced himself to answer. "Stray bullet," he said brusquely.

"What was she doing there in the first place?"

"I don't know," Damon snarled. _Trying to save me. Again._ "Ask Stefan." He stroked Elena's cheek gently with his fingers, accidently leaving a smear of blood. For a second, Damon tried futilely to wipe away the blood, but then he shook his head. That wasn't important. Without further hesitation, he bit down on his own wrist and held it to Elena's lips.

His head exploded in pain. Damon had just enough control over his body to make sure that he fell backwards, away from Elena, and just enough capacity for thought to wonder what he had done to piss off the judgy little witch this time. Then the world went black.

•••••

It was Alaric who stepped in front of Bonnie, taking her shoulders and shaking her gently. "Stop it," he ordered her. "Stop whatever you're doing to him."

He saw Bonnie's expression change and knew that she had stopped her spell. He turned around to see that Damon was curled in a fetal position. He wasn't moving, and Alaric realized that his friend was unconscious. Or dead, although he doubted that Damon would die that easily – or that quietly. Still, it was beyond stupid for Bonnie to have attacked Damon when they were in the middle of trying to kill a bunch of hostile vampires.

Ric was about to turn around to give Bonnie a piece of his mind when Stefan and John Gilbert arrived on the scene. Stefan was leaning on John, and Ric saw both their gazes go to immediately to where Damon and Elena both lay. Stefan's eyes shot immediately to Bonnie as John asked, "What the hell happened here?"

"I didn't mean it, " Bonnie stammered. "I mean I meant to hurt him, but not like this. I used the same spell that I always do."

Stefan glared at her. "And it's never knocked him out like this before," he finished for her.

Bonnie nodded, looking confused.

"That's because he was already injured, Bonnie," Stefan explained. His voice had gone almost gentle, and Ric thought he was probably being too easy on the witch. "His body couldn't heal itself quickly enough this time. Why did you do it?"

Bonnie seemed to have rallied a bit. "He was going to feed Elena his blood, and I couldn't let him turn her into a vampire like he did Caroline."

"Standing right here," Caroline chimed in, sounding annoyed. "And Damon didn't turn me. Katherine did. And besides, Elena's hurt and she needs the blood right now. She can have mine."

"No!" Bonnie glared at her friend. "I mean, it's too risky – I made a mistake before when you were injured, and I won't let it happen again. Elena's not going to die from that wound, and she's human. When humans get hurt, they go to the hospital. They don't drink vampire blood."

"The supernatural is part of your life, Bonnie. And Elena's," Stefan said, still with that neutral tone of voice. "Do you want Elena to suffer needlessly?"

"It's too risky," Bonnie repeated stubbornly. "What if something happened and she died and became a vampire? It should be a last resort, and only a last resort." She pulled her phone out of her bag. "I'm calling Jeremy, and we'll get Elena to the hospital right away." After a moment's hesitation, she added. "Caroline, you can come, too. Then, if she gets worse . . ." She stopped, clearly unwilling to consider the possibility.

Alaric glanced at Stefan to see if the vampire would argue with Bonnie further. Damon certainly would have, but that was why Damon was on the ground unconscious, after all. Stefan just nodded at the witch, acquiescing to her plan.

The clearing was filled with an awkward silence as they waited for transportation to arrive. Caroline knelt by Elena's body, tracking her friend's heartbeat to make sure that it remained steady.

Ric finally went to Damon's side when it was clear no one else planned to even check on the vampire. Damon had a pulse, although Ric really had no idea what that meant for a vampire. In fact, he was kind of surprised that Damon had one at all. "We should get him out of here, too," he said, mainly to Stefan since it seemed like Stefan at least should care about his brother. Looking at Damon up close, he could see exactly what Stefan had meant about Damon's injuries. There was blood all over Damon's dark shirt and jeans, and his shirt was ripped both front and back by what Ric was pretty sure, as a vampire hunter himself, had been stakes. Ric could also see what looked to be bullet holes in Damon's clothing. His vantage point had been screened from most of the fight – it made the spot much safer than one where they could both see and be seen – and he wondered just what, or who, Damon had run into out there.

John's voice interrupted his thoughts. "I think you all have forgotten something rather important," he said. "I'll go check to make sure that none of the other vampires got away." He paused, and Alaric saw him shoot an enigmatic glance at Damon's still form. "Damon took out the ringleader, but I'll make sure my people got the rest."

Stefan nodded. "Thanks, John. Call if you need us." John Gilbert nodded and headed back toward where the fighting had taken place.

It took only a few minutes for Jeremy to show up with one of their getaway cars, and the second car, driven by Tyler, pulled in a moment later. Jeremy was out of the car instantly at the sight of his sister lying motionless. "Elena!" He rushed to her side. "What happened to her? She wasn't supposed to be anywhere near the fighting."

Bonnie put her hand on Jeremy's shoulder. "She got shot, but she'll be fine. We need to get her to the hospital, though."

Jeremy looked confused as he met the witch's eyes. "The hospital? Why don't we just give her some vampire blood?"

Bonnie shook her head. "No, Jeremy. It's not worth the risk that she might end up a vampire." Her eyes pleaded with him to understand.

Jeremy answered slowly as Alaric watched the exchange with interest. "I don't know, Bonnie. I mean, how are we going to explain this at the hospital? And the blood would be out of her system in, what, about a day."

"We thought Caroline would be perfectly safe, too, Jer, and look what happened. Now come on, we're wasting time."

"Ok." Jeremy sounded doubtful, but he stood up and went to open the car door.

Alaric watched as Caroline picked up Elena and placed her gently in the back seat of the car. A moment later, Jeremy drove off with his sister and her two best friends. Ric wasn't at all sure that they shouldn't have just overruled Bonnie and given Elena some blood to heal her, but he hadn't seen a good opportunity to intervene. One thing he did know was that Damon was going to be pissed when he woke up. Maybe Ric should have gone to the hospital after all.

Sure enough, Jeremy's car had only just disappeared from sight when Damon groaned and stirred.


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32**

Damon groaned. His head was throbbing, the wooden bullets lodged in his shoulder and leg were burning, and his whole body was weak from blood loss from his various wounds. He rolled over, opening his eyes as his memory started coming back to him. Elena had been shot, he remembered, and he had to help her. "Elena?" he asked, trying to sit up.

He felt a hand on his chest, pushing him back. "Damon, rest for a second," Stefan said.

"Where's Elena?" Damon asked again, looking around. Stefan, Alaric, and of all annoyances, Tyler, were the only other people in sight. No sign of Elena. Or the little witch.

"She's on her way to the hospital with Bonnie and Caroline." Stefan was still holding him down.

"The hospital?" Damon shoved Stefan's hand away, furious that he was so weak that his brother had actually been able to keep him down. "Why the hospital? Why didn't you give her vampire blood to heal her?"

"Bonnie wouldn't allow it, and Elena wasn't in any real danger."

"That's bullshit and you know it, Stefan." Damon sat up and promptly regretted it as a wave of dizziness and weakness hit him. "Fuck," he groaned as he fell back to the ground. He really needed blood; he had clearly pushed his body too far today. He wondered what teen wolf tasted like.

"Damon," Alaric chimed in. "What did Bonnie do to you?"

Damon groaned again. The teacher sounded like he was just intellectually curious. Or maybe he was contemplating how to incorporate it into a new anti-vampire weapon. "Brain aneurism," he answered shortly.

Tyler's incredulous voice came from where he was leaning against the car. "A brain aneurism?"

"Yep, good times," Damon drawled. He prepared himself to try to sit up again, but before he could actually make the attempt, Stefan had draped Damon's arm over his shoulder and dragged him to his feet.

"We need to get you some blood," Stefan said as he half-carried Damon toward the car.

_God, this is humiliating_, Damon thought. On top of everything, his injured leg wasn't supporting his weight very well. Luckily, something distracted him from his physical condition. "Wait, what about the other vampires?" he said. They hadn't, after all, been hanging out in the woods for their own health.

"John is making sure we got all of them. You killed Lola," Stefan reminded him by way of an answer.

"You're trusting John?" Damon asked incredulously. He did remember now that he had killed Lola. At least something good had come of this day.

"I am in this. He wants those vampires dead as much as we do."

Damon had to admit that Stefan had a point for once. He let himself sink into the back seat of the car. He had a couple more things that he needed cleared up, however. "Stefan, why didn't you keep Elena away from the fighting like you were supposed to? And why the hell did you attack me in the middle of that fight?"

"We thought you were going to get yourself killed, Damon," Stefan said. As usual, the tone of his voice was almost patronizing, although Damon thought maybe he heard a little guilt too. "And I didn't attack you. I couldn't let you kill John. Elena would never forgive you for that, and you know it."

Damon shrugged. "I wasn't going to kill John," he lied.

Stefan didn't buy it. "Sure, Damon," he said as he shut the car door and went around to the other side.

•••••

Caroline was dozing in the chair by Elena's hospital bed when the door to the room opened. She snapped awake, aware that it was way too late for visiting hours. But she relaxed when she saw the black leather jacket-clad figure in the doorway. "Damon, you're looking better," she said.

"Back among the walking dead," Damon replied snarkily. He shot a death glare toward where Bonnie sat in another chair, and Caroline saw the witch actually flinch at the intensity of his gaze.

"Damon," Bonnie began, with a guilty look on her face.

"Don't start with me, witch," Damon snarled. He turned toward Caroline. "How is she?" he asked, blatantly ignoring Bonnie.

Caroline glanced toward where Elena lay sleeping in the hospital bed. Her friend was pale, and her arm was in a sling to keep her shoulder immobilized. "She's fine," she told Damon. "They gave her something for the pain that's helping her sleep, and they said she can go home tomorrow."

Damon nodded and closed the short distance to Elena's side, gazing down at her. His hand brushed a piece of hair gently back from Elena's face, then stroked her cheek softly. His expression was unreadable to Caroline, but then she had never been able to figure Damon out. "Maybe we should leave you two alone?" Caroline asked, looking at Bonnie for guidance.

"No," Bonnie said, shaking her head.

Damon looked up at that, and the expression on his face now was definitely fury, Caroline decided. His eyes flashed angrily, but he turned and left without another word.

Caroline and Bonnie both stared after Damon as the door slammed behind him. "That man is completely insane and so . . . infuriating," Bonnie said, keeping her voice low. "And to think I was about to apologize."

•••••

Damon turned the corner from the hallway leaving Elena's room and slammed his fist into the wall. The soft drywall gave way easily, and Damon pulled his hand from the wall in frustration, ignoring the small cuts on his hand that healed almost instantly. He leaned his head against the wall, his shoulders shaking as he tried to get his emotions under control. Elena was going to be fine, he repeated to himself. She was fine. But she had been so pale and still; it had terrified him, seeing her like that. And then Bonnie had once again made it abundantly clear how much she still didn't trust him, and the combination of helplessness and anger had almost caused Damon to lose it entirely. He fought the urge to go right back into the room and kill the witch before she could so much as try her little spell on him again.

Damon sank to his knees on the cold tile floor of the empty hospital corridor. Elena had told him that she loved him, and Damon believed her, but he still knew that she was making a huge mistake. Elena deserved someone who didn't have a dark side that threatened to swallow what little good was in him at any time, Damon thought as he buried his head in his hands. Someone who didn't smash holes in hospital walls and kill people on a regular basis. Damon knew he had been _this close_ to killing John Gilbert that day, that only Stefan's interference had stopped him from once again killing a biological relative of Elena's. Admittedly, John had been trying to kill him at the time, but that justification wouldn't have mattered much if Damon had succeeded in ending the man's life.

Damon dragged himself back to his feet. He needed alcohol, and luckily the Grill would be open for a few more hours. He had a bad feeling that he knew what he had to do, and it would be the hardest thing that he had ever done in his life. He had to leave Mystic Falls – and Elena.


	33. Chapter 33

**A/N: **_Once again I have to apologize that it took me awhile to get this written. I've had a bit of writer's block lately with this story, probably because of what the show has done to Damon and Elena, so I am posting this before tonight's new episode can throw me off again! Only a few more chapters left in this story, although the characters have been stubbornly refusing to let it end so I'm not sure exactly how many. As always, thanks for reading and reviewing!_

**Disclaimer: **_I own nothing. Just having fun._

**Chapter 33**

Stefan knocked on Damon's bedroom door. He thought he had heard his brother come home late last night, and he shoved the door open slowly when he got no response to his knock. Damon was sprawled out on top of his bed, still dressed and apparently asleep. Stefan saw an empty bottle of bourbon on the floor by the bed, along with Damon's discarded shoes and his permanent pile of books. _Great, more drinking_, he thought, shaking his head at his brother's preferred coping mechanism.

Stefan was about to leave as quietly as he had entered when a rough voice came from the figure on the bed. "Whaddaya want, Stefan?" Damon asked, slurring the words slightly. He didn't bother to open his eyes.

"Alaric and I are going to check the area from yesterday, make sure everything is cleaned up. I came to see if you want to come along."

"Ric called you?"

"Yeah, he said you didn't pick up your phone."

"Oh yeah. It's all the way over there." Damon waved his hand in the direction of his dresser. "Okay, I'll come. Give me twenty minutes." He didn't move to sit up, however.

Stefan had to admit he was surprised at Damon's answer. He would have guessed his brother was too hung over – or still drunk – to have any interest in moving. "Really?"

"Yes, Stefan. What do you want, a formal RSVP?" Damon finally sat up then. His blue eyes were surprisingly clear and awake as they bored into Stefan's. "Why did you stop me from killing John Gilbert yesterday?"

Stefan frowned. They had already gone over this, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to explain himself to Damon. He sighed and decided to try it. "I didn't want you to screw things up for once."

Damon stared at him for a moment before lying back down on his back. "Thank you," he said quietly.

Now it was Stefan's turn to stare at his brother in surprise. Over one hundred and sixty years and he still didn't have Damon even close to figured out. "You're welcome," he said finally and turned to leave the room. "Alaric will be here in half an hour." As he shut the door behind him, it did occur to Stefan that, when it came to figuring out his brother, he might be dealing with a moving target.

•••••

Elena woke up to bright lights, sickly pale pink walls, and an aching pain in her shoulder. The first voice she heard was Caroline's. "Elena, you're awake!" Elena saw Caroline sitting beside her and Bonnie across the room, as Caroline reached down to give her an awkward hug while trying to avoid touching her injured arm. "The doctor said you can go home today," Caroline continued cheerfully. "Jenna and Jeremy should be here any minute now to get you checked out and take you home."

Elena wasn't wondering about the absence of her family from the room, however, and she felt a surge of guilt at that even as she asked the question that had popped into her mind first. "Where's Damon?" she asked. She felt a wave of alarm as her memory cleared. He had been hurt, she remembered. He had been staked and then he had been down on the ground, shot by her uncle . . . although she thought she also remembered his arms around her after she was injured, an uncharacteristic look of panic and a wetness that could have been tears in his blue eyes. But shouldn't he be all healed by now and there by her side? Unless something terrible had happened and he wasn't okay. "Why isn't he here? Is he okay?"

"He's fine," Caroline said quickly. "He was here last night."

Elena was still trying to put the pieces together. "Why am I in the hospital? Why didn't Damon give me his blood?"

"Uhh." Caroline shot a glance toward Bonnie, who had been silent so far. "He tried to," she said reluctantly. "Bonnie mind-whammied him."

Elena glared at her other friend now. "You did what?"

Bonnie met her friend's eyes. "Elena, I couldn't take the risk of you becoming a vampire. I'm sorry I hurt Damon, I really am, but I was just acting on instinct." She paused briefly. "And I don't think he would exactly have gone for a reasoned debate right then, anyway."

"It wasn't your decision to make," Elena shot back angrily.

Bonnie countered immediately. "Was it Damon's then? Because is he really who you want making life and death decisions for you, Elena?"

Elena hesitated then. She loved Damon, but it was true that he sometimes didn't have the best judgment. "I trust him," she said defensively. "He wouldn't have let anything happen to me if I had vampire blood in my system."

"He let you get shot once, didn't he?" Bonnie countered.

"He didn't exactly _let_ me get shot. . . ." Elena was interrupted as the door to her room opened and Jeremy walked in.

"Jenna is filling out some paperwork," he said, looking around the room in surprise at the angry looks between his sister and her best friend. "She'll be here any minute." And then a bit awkwardly. "Hey, Elena, good to see you looking better."

"Hey, Jer," Elena said, aware that he was making sure that Jenna didn't overhear any conversation that she shouldn't.

Bonnie stood up and came to Elena's bedside. "I'm sorry, Elena," she said softly. "I was just trying to do what I thought was best for you. You know I love you like a sister. Peace?"

Elena forced herself to smile back. "Peace," she confirmed and reached up for an awkward one-handed hug with her friend. Bonnie was her best friend, and she didn't want any tension between them. She tried to put aside the worry that there was a reason Damon wasn't there to see her when she woke up.

•••••

Alaric watched as Damon and Stefan finished searching the site of the previous day's ambush. John Gilbert had reported that they had killed four of the vampires and two had gotten away, although he was pretty sure that they were long gone from Mystic Falls. From what Ric could tell, John and his men had done a good job of cleaning up the site, but Damon and Stefan had found some left over wooden bullets around the clearing. It was better if they left nothing behind that might alert a member of the Council – or even a random hiker – that anything odd had happened there.

Ric was more worried, however, about how quiet Damon had been since he had picked up the two vampires at their house. In truth, he had been surprised to see Damon after his friend hadn't answered his phone and Stefan had told him that he thought Damon had gotten wasted the night before. Ric could understand Damon being upset about the previous day's events, but he was pretty sure that something else was going on since Damon usually took attempts on his life pretty much in stride. The question, of course, was what exactly was going through Damon's head, and that was what he hadn't figured out yet.

Slowly, Ric approached Damon. Stefan was on the other side of the clearing. "Did you go see Elena yesterday?" he asked his friend.

"Yep," Damon answered shortly.

When Damon didn't seem inclined to say any more, Ric decided to press him a little. "How is she?"

"She was asleep. Blondie said she'll be going home today."

Ric frowned. "Why aren't you there at the hospital with her? I think Elena would want you there when she wakes up."

Damon shook his head. "I'm not so sure about that."

"I am," Ric responded, trying to reassure his friend.

Damon just shrugged in response, and Ric narrowed his eyes. "Damon, what are you thinking right now?" He realized immediately that he shouldn't have been so blunt.

"Are you trying to figure me out, Ric?" Damon laughed sharply. "Don't bother. You don't want to get inside my head. It's not a pretty place." The vampire turned and walked away.

Ric let him go, knowing he wasn't going to get anything more out of Damon now. Unfortunately, he still had no idea what Damon was thinking, but knowing Damon, he was pretty sure his friend was going to do something stupid.


	34. Chapter 34

**A/N: **_Sorry it has taken me forever to get this chapter finished and uploaded. It has suffered from everything from writer's block to stubborn characters who want to do their own thing to deadlines at work, but here it is finally. I hope you enjoy it, and thank you for all the lovely reviews! (And how about Damon dodging a bullet, literally, in the last episode? I knew he could do it!)  
_

**Chapter 34**

Damon put his foot down on the accelerator and gunned his car onto the freeway and away from Mystic Falls. It was about time, he told himself. He was a vampire, and it was a bad idea to form attachments to humans who were just going to age and die. He would track down Stefan in a decade or so when his brother least expected him and disrupt whatever stupid life Stefan was trying to build for himself – that would never cease to be fun. Maybe he would start teasing Blondie the same way. In the meantime, he would go to New York or Paris, lose himself in the club scene. Maybe there were some new drugs that would help him bury these damn emotions. He wanted – no, he needed – to stop caring even if it was just temporary.

Damon's vague plans to resume his life as a rootless vampire could only occupy his mind for a few miles, however. He couldn't keep the image of Elena lying in that hospital bed out of his mind. He tried to tell himself to forget her entirely, to forget that she had told him she loved him and meant it – because loving him would only get _her_ killed and he couldn't live an eternity with that on his conscience. It was better to live with having left her, knowing she was alive somewhere to hate him for it.

But, a traitorous part of his mind said, he had only Blondie's word for it that Elena was okay. She had been so pale and still and weak, and what did Blondie know anyway? Maybe he should see with his own eyes that she was out of the hospital and fine. That would make it easier to leave, he told himself, if he was sure that she was okay. He would just check on her, and then he would get back in his car and drive away again. For good this time.

Relying on a combination of vampire reflexes and sports car handling, Damon spun his car in a crazy U-turn and headed back toward Mystic Falls.

•••••

Damon knocked hesitantly on the door to Elena's room. His car was parked outside and was still packed with the few essentials that he had planned to take with him. He told himself again that he would leave once he saw that Elena was fine, once her eyes flashed angrily at him as she yelled at him – as she undoubtedly would.

He heard her call out "come in," and he tried to ignore the way his heart jumped a little at the sound of her voice. He opened the door slowly.

"Damon!" Elena exclaimed as he appeared in the doorway. Her tone quickly shifted from excitement to anger. "Where have you been?"

Damon just wanted to look at her. Her face was flushed, and her huge brown eyes were wide and clear and, as he had known they would be, furious with him. Her hair was mussed, probably from lying in bed – and how he wished he had been responsible for messing up her smooth, straight hair. Her arm was still in that stupid sling, but other than that she was his fiery, passionate Elena again. And she was yelling at him. "Where were you?" she repeated insistently, and when he still didn't answer, he saw her face fall a bit. "I thought I could count on you," she said sadly.

That cut him to the bone, but Damon tried to ignore the feeling that he had let her down. It was better if she hated him. He forced himself to speak, fighting the way his throat seemed to have closed up. "I have to leave, Elena," he said. "I'm sorry."

"What do you mean, leave?" Elena asked. She sounded confused. "What are you talking about, Damon? Where are you going?"

Damon answered the easiest question. "I don't know," he said. "Maybe New York."

The confusion in her eyes only deepened, and Damon realized that his answer hadn't exactly cleared anything up. He thought about just turning and walking out, and he knew that was probably what he should do. He had seen her now, and she was fine. Elena's voice interrupted his confused thoughts. "Damon, what's going on?" Elena asked a bit frantically. "Talk to me."

Damon closed his eyes for a moment, searching for words. He supposed he did owe her an explanation. "I can't be the man you want me to be, the man you deserve," he said hesitantly. "I'll . . . I'll always be a monster, Elena, and you deserve so much better than that. It's better if I leave, and you can move on with a nice guy. Someone who doesn't kill people. Stefan, or some human . . ." Damon realized he was rambling, but now that he was talking he couldn't stop. "Only not Matt, please. That guy's not even good enough for Blondie, let alone you." He forced himself to shut up before he stopped making any kind of sense.

Elena was staring at him. She slowly got up out of bed and approached him, and Damon wondered if she was moving cautiously because she was afraid of spooking him. The truth was that a large part of him wanted to run, but something else was keeping him there.

Elena took his hand tentatively, and Damon shivered at her touch. He should have already left, should have never come back, he thought. She would wear him down, like she always did. "Why are you saying these things?" she asked, brown doe eyes capturing his blue ones.

"I almost killed John Gilbert," Damon said by way of explanation.

Elena clutched his hand tightly, and her eyes filled with even more confusion. "What are you talking about, Damon? I was there. John was trying to kill you. He shot _you_, not the other way around."

"Only because Stefan stopped me. Otherwise, I would have killed him first." Damon took her hand in both of his, trying to make her understand his decision. He had screwed up his attempt to leave, he realized, just like he screwed up everything. He would have to make her understand now, or he wouldn't be able to go through with it. He would have to convince her to let him go. "My instinct was to kill him, Elena, and I acted on it."

"But you didn't kill him, right?"

Damon shook his head. What did that matter? The point was that he hadn't really changed, despite his best efforts.

Elena went on. "We all make mistakes. None of us are perfect, Damon. Not me, not Stefan . . . "

"Well I know _that_," Damon interrupted her, thinking of Stefan's many flaws. Elena giggled softly at his words and the look on his face. In spite of the circumstances, Damon felt a surge of joy run through him at making her smile and laugh. His whole mood changed in that moment, reflecting hers, and he knew right then that he wouldn't be able to leave. He loved her too much. He couldn't hurt her intentionally even if it was for her own good.

Elena's smile faded quickly, and she rushed her words, clearly still afraid of losing him. "Sometimes we need other people to stop us from making mistakes, and I'm glad you finally had someone to help you, to watch out for you. But you are _not_ a monster, Damon. You aren't." She paused and glared at him. "And I love you, so don't you _dare_ leave after everything that we've been through."

Damon surrendered. He couldn't do anything else with her standing so close to him, looking at him with that intoxicating mixture of love and passionate anger. He could smell her, a mix of her lotion and shampoo and the scent that was uniquely Elena and that turned him on like nothing else. So he gave in to what he really wanted in that moment. He bent down and kissed her, teasing her full lower lip with his tongue until she gave him access to her mouth.

Elena pulled back suddenly, looking at him suspiciously. "Are you trying to distract me?"

"No," Damon answered truthfully. He just wanted to get back to kissing her.

Elena pulled back a few inches. She still seemed doubtful. "Are you still leaving?"

"No."

Now she narrowed her eyes. "You changed your mind?"

Damon sighed. "Elena, I love you, and . . . you're right. I can't leave you, even if I should." He brought his hands up to grip the sides of her head and lowered his lips to hers, trying to show her that he wasn't going anywhere.

•••••

Elena gave herself over to Damon's kisses for a moment. His tongue explored her mouth, and she felt his touch through her whole body as the passion between them flared up. Then she pulled back, still not certain that Damon wasn't going to leave her. Damon Salvatore was one of the most stubborn people she had ever met, and when he got a hare-brained scheme in his head, he usually stuck with that scheme until it either worked or blew up in his face. So she found it hard to believe that she had convinced him so easily. "Promise me you're going to be here in the morning," she said softly before he could distract her with another kiss.

"I promise," Damon said and tried to kiss her again. Elena searched his eyes, finding nothing but love and desire.

"Prove it," she dared him with a wicked little smile.

With a growl, Damon slipped his hands up to hold her head as he captured her mouth in a hungry kiss. One hand slipped through her hair and then down to caress the back of her neck while his other hand dropped to her hip, his fingers creeping under her shirt. Elena pressed herself closer to Damon, hissing in frustration at the sling that held her arm between them and kept her from feeling his body hard against hers. She felt a stab of pain as she jarred the arm against Damon's unyielding chest and pulled back with a wince. "This thing is driving me crazy already," she confessed as she shifted to find a comfortable way to get closer to him.

Damon was breathing heavily. "How long do you have to wear it?" he asked. Before she could answer, Elena saw a sparkle of mischief in his blue eyes as they met hers. "We'll just have to get creative," he added in a low voice.

Tempting as that sounded, Elena had a better idea. "Or you could heal me."

He looked at her with surprise. "Elena, are you sure?"

"I'm sure," she said confidently. She met Damon's ice blue eyes as he gave her a long, intense look like he was trying to see into her soul. Elena was just glad she had nothing to hide from him.

"Okay," he said finally. She watched as his fangs came out, and he bit into his wrist. His face was back to normal before he had even brought his arm up, and she marveled at his control. "You won't need very much," he said, and she nodded as she licked tentatively at his blood. It had a coppery taste, and it also tasted of something that she couldn't quite label but that just reminded her of Damon. She felt a rush as his blood entered her system, a feeling of energy or strength running through her, and she suddenly felt a bit dizzy at the sensation. She wanted more.

"And that's probably enough," Damon said as he gently pulled his arm away from her. Elena realized with a start that she had been sucking energetically at the cut on his wrist. "You might feel a bit of a high, but that should pass pretty quickly. How does your arm feel?"

Elena's mind was racing with the surge of energy running through her body, and she felt a strange tingling sensation in her shoulder where the bullet wound was. She tried to get herself under control. She'd already forgotten what Damon had said. "What?" she asked confused.

"I said, how's your arm?" Damon gave her a crooked smile.

Elena shifted her arm a bit within the confines of the sling. She didn't feel any pain. "Oh, I think it's better. Should I take the sling off now?"

"Sure. You should be all healed."

Elena fumbled with the sling with one hand, and Damon helped her to wriggle out of it. Elena moved her arm experimentally and broke into a smile at the realization that it felt completely normal. She rose up on her tiptoes to exuberantly kiss Damon. "So much better," she said when she finally pulled back. "Thank you."

He smiled crookedly at her again. "You're welcome."

Elena grinned back at him. "Hey, this means I can finally take a shower now."

"Only if I get to join you."

Elena gave him her best flirtatious look. "That seems fair," she said. After a moment she added, "But you're wearing too many clothes for the shower." She stepped closer to Damon and began unbuttoning his shirt. She slid her hands down his torso, enjoying the feeling of soft skin over hard muscle, as he shrugged out of the shirt. Elena dropped her hands to his jeans and unfastened them before slipping her hand inside the waistband to tease him.

Damon's hands were under her shirt, too, and Elena felt a surge of electricity through her body every time he touched her. "Can I just rip this off?" Damon asked huskily as he pushed her shirt up.

"No, you already destroyed one of my shirts." Actually, Elena was wearing an old oversized t-shirt that she didn't much care about, but it wasn't like she could afford an entire new wardrobe because Damon was impatient. She stopped touching him long enough to raise her arms so that he could pull her shirt off without destroying it. "See, was that so hard?" she teased him.

Damon shrugged unrepentantly. "You drive me crazy," he said as he captured her mouth for another kiss. Elena felt herself melting as his tongue expertly explored her mouth. Fire seemed to trail across her skin everywhere he touched her, and she lost herself entirely in his touches for a moment. Damon finally pulled away slightly to let her breathe, and Elena gasped at the way her body burned for him. As his fingers unhooked her bra, she pulled him with her toward the bathroom, not wanting to wait any longer for either her shower or her pleasure.

•••••

Elena lay sleepily against Damon's body. She luxuriated in the feel of his strong arms around her and his soft breath against her neck. After a lot of fun in the shower, they had moved things back to her bed for another round. Elena was physically sated and exhausted, but her mind was still fixated on what Damon had said earlier. "Damon?" she said softly.

"Hmmm." He sounded more than half asleep himself.

"Were you really going to leave?"

His arms tightened around her slightly. "There's a duffel bag full of clothes outside in my car," he admitted. "I got about twenty miles out of town."

"What?" Elena tried to turn in his arms to face him, shocked that she had come that close to losing him, but Damon was holding her too firmly.

"I told you I screw everything up, Elena," he said softly in her ear.

"Not this time," she answered after a moment.

She felt a chuckle rumble through Damon's body. "Nah, this time I just screwed up leaving."

"Damon!" She sighed. Somehow she was going to teach him not to be so hard on himself.

"Don't worry. You're not getting rid of me now." He kissed her neck tenderly.

"Good," Elena said and burrowed a little closer to him. After a few minutes, she could feel Damon relax into sleep and only then did she let herself join him, confident that he really would be there in the morning.


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35**

Stefan heard the door to the boarding house open. He got up to see Damon walk in with a duffel bag over one shoulder and several bags of groceries awkwardly balanced in his arms. Stefan raised his eyebrows. "Your reputation as a bad-ass vampire is going to be shot to hell," he said. "You're going to end up with a cooking show on cable."

Damon grinned. "_Dinner with the Vampire_? Or _Dinner with Damon_? Either way, it'll be a huge hit."

"Too bad it would blow your cover," Stefan bantered. Did his brother actually seem happy? He couldn't remember the last time he had seen Damon truly happy, so his eyes could be deceiving him.

"Elena's coming over for dinner," Damon said over his shoulder as he headed for the kitchen.

That might explain Damon's mood, Stefan thought. His heart still ached that he had lost Elena, especially to his brother, but part of him couldn't help but want to see Damon be happy. Despite the whole eternity of misery thing, they were still brothers and Stefan still remembered the human Damon, the older brother who had protected him and been his best friend until Katherine had destroyed their lives. "What's in the duffel bag?" he asked as he followed his brother into the kitchen.

Damon shrugged. "Just some stuff from my car," he said evasively.

Now that was more like the Damon he knew now. "You don't let your car get messy," Stefan countered suspiciously.

"It happens to the best of us. Been a little busy, you know, what with fighting vampires and nearly dying and everything."

Stefan didn't believe that excuse for a second, but he just watched silently as Damon bustled around the kitchen putting away food. "I'm going away for a while," he finally said.

Damon stopped with the refrigerator door open. His sharp blue eyes held Stefan's for a long moment, and then he just nodded. "Where to?" he asked casually.

"I'm not sure yet. I'll just be a phone call away if anything happens, though."

Damon was still watching him, eyes wide and intense. "I'm sorry," he said.

Now it was Stefan's turn to nod. He hesitated, wondering if he should say anything more. He kept silent, however, and turned to leave. Then he thought better of his silence. "Take care of her," he said as he left the room, not looking at his brother. He could feel Damon watching him as he left.

•••••

Elena was finishing getting ready to head over to the boarding house for dinner. She knew it was a casual date, if you could even call it that, but she still wanted to look nice for Damon. She had put on a flowy teal tank top with some sparkles on it and her sexiest jeans, and she was just finishing her make-up when someone knocked on her door. She opened it and furrowed her brow in surprise at the sight of Stefan.

"Hi," Stefan began awkwardly.

"Hey, I was just about to head over to your place."

Stefan smiled slightly. "I know. I hope you're hungry. I think Damon bought the entire store this afternoon."

Elena grinned at the image of Damon with a huge cart of groceries. One of these days she was going to convince him to take her with him to the store just so she could see that incongruous scene for herself. Then something else about Stefan's words registered. "You're not joining us?"

Stefan shook his head. "No," he said slowly. He hesitated. After a moment, he went on. "I'm actually going to leave Mystic Falls for a while."

Elena grabbed for his hand, but Stefan moved back just enough to avoid her. "Stefan, don't do this. You've . . . you've worked hard to build a life here."

"I'm sorry, Elena, but you know why I can't stay."

Elena refrained from reminding him that Damon had watched for many months as she and Stefan had flaunted their relationship in the face of Damon's obvious feelings for her. Now that she had realized the strength of Damon's feelings, she was shocked that he had stayed even to protect her, and she couldn't really begrudge Stefan his unwillingness to go through something similar. "Stefan," she began, trying to find a way to articulate everything she was feeling.

But Stefan interrupted her before she could fumble out any more words. "Be good to him, Elena. Be careful with him. He's . . . damaged in a lot of ways, so try not to hurt him."

Elena looked at Stefan with surprise.

Stefan continued, a rueful expression on his face. "I know you probably think I hate Damon, but he's still my brother. It's just hard to forget more than a century of the worst side of him. It's harder than I thought to forgive and forget. But I know that you're good for him, that he'll try to be better for you." Stefan paused. "I'm not as confident that he's the right person for you, but I know that this is what you want and I want the best for both of you, I really do. I just can't stay around to watch it."

"Oh, Stefan!" Elena threw her arms around Stefan, overcome by a mix of emotions, and this time he not only let her touch him but hugged her back.

•••••

Elena was in a pensive mood as she knocked on the door to the boarding house. She knew she probably shouldn't be surprised that Stefan had decided to leave Mystic Falls, and she had no grounds to talk him out of it as she had Damon. But somehow the fact that she could only have one of the brothers in her life right now was hitting her harder than she had expected.

Damon opened the door, and his face lit up with a real smile. "You look beautiful," he said and bent forward to kiss her.

For the first time ever, Elena was too distracted to give her full attention to kissing Damon, and she knew he felt it as he pulled away. "Elena, what's wrong?" he asked. A worried look had replaced the smile on his face.

Elena pushed past him into the house. "Did you know Stefan is leaving?"

Damon nodded. "He told me this afternoon."

"And you're okay with it?" Elena said angrily. "Damon, we have to talk him out of it."

Damon sighed. "I can't blame him for needing to leave." After a pause, he added, "I was on the verge of it for months, myself." Elena noticed that he didn't mention his own aborted attempt to leave town – and her – just the night before.

Elena knew she was being childish, but she couldn't help herself. "I don't want anyone else to leave me," she whined.

"Hey," Damon said softly. He reached out to her tentatively, clearly not sure if Elena wanted him to touch her, and after a moment, Elena closed the distance between them and threw her arms around his body. She clutched him to her, resting her head on his chest as she felt his arms close around her. "It's okay," he continued soothingly. His hand gently rubbed circles on her back. "Stefan's not going to die or anything. He'll still be there for you. He just needs some time."

Elena stopped herself before she indulged in any more whining. She had made her choice; she certainly didn't regret it, and the last thing she wanted to do was make Damon feel bad that she had chosen him, especially since she knew he still thought that she was making a mistake in doing so. Then a horrible thought crossed her mind. "Damon, do you feel like I drove your brother away from you?"

Damon pulled away a little to look at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Do you feel like I drove Stefan away? Like I made things worse between the two of you?"

Damon brought his hands up to either side of Elena's face and gently tipped her head up to make sure she met his eyes. "No," he said firmly. "The rift between Stefan and me goes all the way back to 1864. It has very little to do with you, Elena." He paused as if looking for the right words. "In fact, things between us are better now than they have been in a very long time, and that has a lot to do with you. I've changed because of you, and that's helped, and protecting you is one thing we've actually agreed on and worked together on. At least most of the time," he clarified with a slight smile. "Stefan leaving for a while – that's no big deal. Hell, this is already the longest he and I have lived in the same place since right after we turned."

Damon's blue eyes were as intense as ever and unusually sincere, and Elena nodded at his words. She believed him, and she felt a sense of relief that Damon at least didn't think she had damaged the brothers' fractured relationship any further. Then her mind caught up to something else he had said. She tilted her head to the side and looked at him teasingly. "Did you just admit that you've changed?"

Damon laughed softly. "You caught me," he said with a rueful smile. He continued after a moment. "But I haven't changed enough to deserve you – although don't get me wrong, I'm glad that you don't agree."

Elena brought her arms up around Damon's neck. "I'm right on this one," she said. "You deserve everything that you want."

Damon tilted his head slightly, looking at her with his best fuck-me eyes and smile. "What if I want you?" he asked huskily.

Elena felt her breath catch in her throat. She was the one who didn't deserve him, she thought, as their lips met. This time nothing could have distracted her from kissing him as Damon's lips and tongue worshiped her mouth. Elena's knees went weak, and she melted against him, letting him hold her up. She moaned, bringing her hands down his body to try to get access to his skin.

But far too soon, Damon pulled away slightly, looking up.

"What is it?" Elena asked, pouting a little that he had stopped kissing her.

Damon laughed as he looked down at her. "Dinner's ready," he said.

"I didn't hear anything."

"Sometimes vampire hearing has its uses," he responded teasingly. "The kitchen _is_ pretty far away."

Elena hit him lightly on the chest. She looked up into blue eyes that were filled with laughter. "I love you," she said, stretching on her tiptoes to kiss him again.

"I love you, too," Damon responded when they pulled apart after a moment. "And now I'm going to feed you." He took her hand and led her gently in the direction of the kitchen, their fingers laced together.


	36. Epilogue

**A/N: **_So this is it for this story, and it's kind of a random way to end it. I wrote this scene a while ago, and it's almost more of a one-shot than part of the story. Think of it as a glimpse of a quiet, "normal" evening with Elena and Damon now that they are together. This story got far longer than I ever intended - the characters had minds of their own at times - but it's been a really fun ride. I realize I may not have fully wrapped up some of the plot elements - if anything seems too egregious, let me know in reviews and I will try to address it. I also have ideas for a sequel and a couple of other Damon-centric stories, so if you've liked this story, be on the lookout for those. I am leaning toward writing the sequel first, but I'll have to see where my muse lands next._

_Thanks again to everyone who has read, favorited, and reviewed this story. I've been blown away by the response to my first story so thank you again!_

**Epilogue: Chemistry with Damon  
**

Elena stared at the chemistry homework in front of her. She had tried this problem three different ways, and she had come up with three different answers. She was sure all of them were wrong. She sighed and looked up.

Damon was sitting on the couch a few feet away, reading a book. It was no coincidence that the boarding house contained more books than the Mystic Falls public library; both Damon and Stefan were voracious readers. She stared at his profile, firelight flickering over his features. God, he was beautiful.

"This isn't working," Elena pouted in Damon's direction. "Distract me?"

Damon turned to her, and she felt like she would melt under his smile. He got up slowly and came to join her at the table. "What are you working on?" he asked.

"Chemistry. And it does not make any sense at all." Elena knew she was whining, but she didn't think Damon would mind. Too much.

Damon smiled at her again. "Ah, science." Elena thought she detected an element of scorn in his voice. "Most of what's in this textbook will be disproven within a generation anyway, if it hasn't been already. Hell, my very existence contradicts most of it. Now literature, history, languages – those are much more useful."

Elena was staring at him now, surprised at this quiet, serious Damon. Wasn't he the one who was always telling everyone that school was a waste of time?

He wasn't looking at her, though, and he went on. "Did you know when I was growing up we believed that diseases were caused by miasmas, vapors that came from unhealthy environments or filth? The idea of tiny microorganisms that could enter people's bodies and spread disease – ridiculous."

"Tell me more," Elena said, fascinated.

Damon knew he was rambling, but he doubted that Elena had any real interest in the details of miasmatic versus germ theory. "I remember when I read Darwin's _The Origin of Species_. I was a vampire then. It was published in 1859, but it wasn't the kind of thing that Southern gentlemen read, at least not Giuseppe Salvatore's sons, and we were a bit busy for the next few years, anyway. Science is still trying to work out the details of evolution, and yet it denies the supernatural entirely. I am partial to chaos theory, though . . . "

Elena was looking at him like he was an alien. "Who are you, and what have you done with Damon?" she teased gently.

Damon gave her a soft smile. "Let me look at that," he said, grabbing her homework and her chemistry textbook.

Elena watched him as he glanced at the homework and then flicked his eyes back to her textbook, scanning quickly through the pages. As Damon had relaxed around her, she had come to see that he had the same kind of bright, inquisitive mind as Stefan. That was one Salvatore family trait that the brothers shared, although Damon was far more likely to question everything that he read or heard. Elena smiled to herself, not surprised that he would question the truth of her chemistry textbook now that she thought about it. Elena wondered suddenly if thinking too much wasn't also a source of the brothers' problems. Maybe stupid people made better – or at least less troubled – vampires?

Damon interrupted her thoughts. "Here's what you're doing wrong," he said, pointing to part of her answer. As he explained it to her, Elena found herself actually understanding chemistry for probably the first time. Damon was a better tutor than Stefan, she realized with surprise. Stefan had always known all the answers – she knew none of the teachers at the high school except Alaric had known what to make of his near-perfect test scores given the massive number of absences he had accumulated – but Stefan had a tendency to just tell her what the answer was when they studied together, rather than actually explaining it to her.

"Did you just figure that out now from reading the textbook?" she asked Damon, giving him a mock glare.

He shrugged, looking embarrassed. "It's all in there. It's not exactly well-written . . ."

Elena couldn't resist teasing him some more. "I'm dating a nerd."

"I'm not a nerd. I'm _way_ too hot to be a nerd."

He had a point there, Elena thought. "Prove it to me," she dared him.

"Would a nerd do this?" He bent over and kissed her, his tongue slipping through her mouth in a way that made Elena shiver with desire. A moan escaped her lips.

Damon pulled back with a grin. "I'm gonna need some more evidence," Elena declared, climbing into his lap and bringing her hands up to run them through his silky black hair. She felt his hands slip under her shirt as she dropped her lips to his. Study time was over.

_The End_


End file.
